Marriage proposals, it seems, are no longer about reaching across the table during dinner and holding out a ring. No, people are getting engaged in grandiose ways. Just last night, Giuliana Rancic told us how Bill proposed in a helicopter (and don’t think for a second I didn’t want to shout out “I was proposed to soaring above the trees, tooooo” 
).
Some men bring out flash mobs for the asking and others are posting signs on guardrails over on Washington Avenue Extension. Also, a couple weeks ago we heard about that man who faked his death to propose. And then … there is Ryan Thompson. He took his girlfriend for a ride in an airplane, then said the controls weren’t working and asked her to read off the emergency procedures.
The final words on the checklist were, “Will you marry me?”
As my colleague Tim Neff asked, adorably cute, or horribly manipulative, you make the call?
I’m going with manipulative. Romantic gestures laced with jokes are one thing, but potentially scaring someone to the point that they could all but have an anxiety attack is sick and odd and the sign of someone who doesn’t understand the difference between dangerous and funny.
Apparently, she was not unimpressed, seeing as she said “yes.”
