Marriage is a sacred institution. The cornerstone of civilization. You can get a spouse on TV.

Tonight the ABC series "The Bachelorette" ended. In it, a woman from Georgia called DeAnna Pappas, who got left at the altar, well, sort of, at the end of the show's doppelganger, "The Bachelor,"then tonight got her own back, handing one guy his head after two hours of maundering on about how she loved both the finalists, then picking a whackjob snowboarder with career prospects that can be counted over before the decade is out.

Not winning a husband on one TV show. Signing up for another. Picking a husband from 25 randomly chosen men. Conducting serial romances in the presence of television cameras. A program website that lets you play The Rose Ceremony Game. Eeny, meeny, miney, moing a decision, then going on a followup show to talk about it all before a live studio audience.

It's interesting watching something like this show as the only person in the room- hell, the whole house- legally barred from marrying anyone, two reality shows or not.

Lily Tomlin once said, "I know love is blind, but does it have to be stupid, too?"