Related story: Haunted Honeymoon

By Daniel Barbarisi
Journal Staff Writer

This story was all about a bad pun.

Cruising down Route 195 eastbound on my way back to the The Journal's Massachusetts bureau, I couldn't figure out how to play this story about a Halloween wedding at the Lizzie Borden house.

I thought the idea of a pair of young lovers starting their new life together in such a macabre fashion, at such a famously morbid locale, was hilarious.

Problem was, everyone I interviewed seemed to think it was a truly serious event, and every tongue-in-cheek question about the site, or the style of dress, or the bouquet with an axe in it, was answered with statements like, ``It's so beautiful that they're having it in a house with such history. It's so fitting for them, they're such nice people. I think it's just wonderful and so romantic.''

So, I was a little flustered. I thought there was such great material here, but I was worried that if I played it like I saw it, these wonderful, romantic newlyweds would come-a-calling to give me my 40 whacks.

Then, my mind stumbled upon the goofy pun of the couple's ``tying the noose,'' rather than tying the knot.

Hey, I'm never one to let a cheesy line go to waste, and accepting that using a pun like that would alter the enter tone of the piece, I decided to throw caution to the wind and just write it as I saw it: a wonderful, romantic farce.