From the beginning of time, when a man was looking for his mate, at the back of his mind was the thought, am I choosing wisely.

Today, he will get on the internet and fool himself into believing that the glamorous photograph of his lady love, is a true and honest representation. And, of course, the details of her many accomplishments and talents are in no way being exaggerated.

In matters of the heart, the likelihood of being taken in is always on the cards. Poor Henry Vlll felt very badly done by when he found that the woman he had chosen by the picture given to him, and by the stories of her beauty and excellence he'd heard from her friends and family, did not measure at all when he saw her in person. No doubt, though she was more discreet and not as vocal, his prospective bride had some second thoughts herself. He had looked a lot more virile, and no where near as Buddha-like in his picture, as he did in real life.

Some five hundred years ago, the Japanese went about the discovery of the potential brides suitability in a careful and systematic manner. In expressing his interest, even before he actually met the girl herself, the suitor would compose a romantic thirty-one syllable poem. Upon receiving it, if the girl was interested, she would compose a poem in return.

Studying the parchment with care, the suitor would then decided what sort of a person was suggested by the composition and the brush strokes. Was this a woman of accomplishment worthy of him, or was she some drop-out, barely able to differentiate between one end of the brush and the other, and had as much of an idea of what a syllable was as Scrooge Christmas cheer.

Needless to say, the girl and her family scrutinized his handwriting and versification with the same care as he did theirs, but since females always outnumbered the males, she was inclined to be less fastidious than he.

A lot of couples place their future happiness in matchmakers who get paid for bringing about a match. As to be expected, when money enters the equation, beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder. And so it was inevitable that meeting each other for the first time one or the other party and often both would be disappointed. She had to make the sale, and she couldnt be too fussy.

An apocryphal story has it, that one groom, upon meeting the matchmakers choice, complained softly that the girl was neither rich, nor beautiful as the mattchmaker had proclaimed her to be. The matchmaker, much more loudly, assured him that he didnt have to whisper. The girl was deaf as well!