Richard Nixon, Matchmaker

On Facebook tonight, I jokingly told historian and Nixonland author Rick Perlstein that I wished he'd used a weather-lengthened Newark layover to visit Richard Nixon's old northern New Jersey neighborhood. He replied that he'd done so many times, including when attending mass with his in-laws at Christmas.

Ain't no flies on me. To Google! Perlstein and his wife, Kathy Geier, made news in May 2001, in the New York Times "Vows" column, where we learn that, in his ineffable way, 37 helped make two, one (as with my Kathy and me as well):

Their first date was at the Living Room Cafe in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where, it turned out, they were neighbors. Ms. Geier discovered that she had read and admired his pieces in Lingua Franca magazine, while Mr. Perlstein learned that she shared his passion for "the lunacy of Richard Nixon."

Ms. Geier, who handed out Nixon fliers as a child during the 1972 election, said she got her devotion to politics from her staunch Republican parents, Patricia and Henry Geier. Her father, an investment banker, was once mayor of Westwood, N.J.