Words Matter...Medical School and Weddings

I was chatting with Dr. Arnie Schwartz the other day about my "Principles of Successful Weddings."

Like the good med school professor that he is, he instructed me that "principles" are, in his world, based upon years of data, evidence, and analysis. If you don't adhere to a principle, you are liable for malpractice.
The pyramid of evolution of ideas goes from

• Suggestions
• Recommendations
• Guidelines
• Principles

Now, since I haven't done a thorough statistical analysis of how guests feel after different types of weddings, I suppose I can not call them "principles," but I am comfortable saying they are somewhere between Recommendations and Guidelines.

Of course, Arnie just needs to wait to have his mind blown when I do my book review of "Fooled by Randomness" (coming soon), but that's another topic!