Well, personally I've drifted into a semi-satisfactory ongoing temporary arrangement, and I'm entirely semi-satisfied with it. We might feel differently if property was a consideration, but other than that the only problem I've encountered is that people sometimes think I'm being snotty when I use the word partner.

It seems to me to be a bit of a too-easy one-stop solution to a range of different problems. What if I want to entrust my medical decisions to someone I don't want to sleep with, or share property with? Or (*shudder) joint accounts. I think any tax relief that might be gained from marriage would probably be rapidly outweighed by the extra eighteen hours it would take to file a joint return with stormsearch. I suspect if we ever tried to file a joint tax return, we wouldn't be married for very long afterwards.

Additionally, it gives religion an excuse to stick its nose into legal proceedings, which I don't consider to be a good thing.

> I still carouse from time to time

Curious: how many of the people with whom you carouse are also married?