It must have been one of the shortest marriages ever. I’d clipped a while back an Associated Press item, about a just married husband in northwest Syria who divorced his wife at their wedding reception.

That’s right, he divorced her at the wedding reception, apparently not even making it a full day into their marriage.

At the reception, the bride had a DJ play the song, “I love you, my little donkey” for their first wedding dance.

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And she sang the song before the guests, referring to her husband several times as a donkey — though the story says she also made it clear she’d be angry if anyone else did so.

But her new husband wasn’t amused and asked the DJ to stop the song. The DJ refused, saying the wife had specifically instructed him to play this particular song.

The husband was livid and reportedly grabbed the microphone and shouted “talaq” three times. According to the report, under Sunni Islamic Law, a husband can claim a divorce by saying three times, “talaq,” which means “I divorce you.”

Don’t you just know that must be a most memorable wedding for the family and guests?

And since it was the couple’s first dance and song, you’d think it was pretty early into the reception. I’d sure love to know what happened after that.

Of course I wonder how many on either families’ side, the bride’s or the groom’s, think the husband was overly sensitive — and made an ass of himself?

I guess this also leaves us to assume that there’s not much a need for divorce lawyers in this part of the world. If all you’ve got to do is call out three times, “talaq” and you’re divorced, that’s pretty simple.

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That the stock market is down isn’t news to most anyone. I read that the S&P 500 (Standard and Poors) is down 37 percent this year, its steepest decline since 1937 according to an article at Bloomberg.com.

But consider some of the incredible growth percentages individual stocks had in a run before this market correction.

An article in USA Today in April 2007 talked about the Top 25 best stocks.

At that time, the paper reported that had you invested $100 in each of the 25 top-performing stocks of the past 25 years it was featuring, that $2,500 would be have been worth $685,000 as of when that article was written.

So even if the value of that portfolio had dropped 37 percent, that $2,500 investment would still be worth $431,550, an amazing appreciation in value.

Among the best performing stocks of the 25-year period the paper listed was Danaher, which had appreciated 47,913 percent. It’s reportedly a company that makes industrial measuring tools. Or there was UnitedHealth, which at the time had appreciated 37,672 percent.

Sure my investments have shrunk like anyone else’s, but even with the market reductions of late, over the long haul, the market has been good for plenty of investors.

WILL CHAPMAN is publisher of The Daily Iberian.