A few days ago Delia and I were playing with words, batting nonsense back and forth while I was doing dishes.
- I said something about “putting them all away” (the dishes, sung to the tune of Throwing It All Away by Genesis)
- Delia said “putting THE MALL away” (an ongoing joke playing on a porn site domain name of SoAndSoDoesThemAll, and we think it is very funny to imagine So-and-so doing THE MALL, just making a big thing of shopping and hanging out in the food court and stuff)
- I said PUTIN the mall away
- Delia said PUTIN on the Ritz, and we were laughing too hard by then to go on
Our sense(s) of humor, love of word play, and close age-proximity (making for shared understanding of cultural references) form a strong cornerstone of our relationship. I think being compatible in these ways — shared values and tastes in humor and generational understanding/closeness – is super important in marriage … more important than sex, over the long haul. It is much harder to find someone who laughs at your jokes and makes jokes you laugh at, too than to find a decent lay. Not to diminish the splendor of sexual compatibility, because that is awesome too, but laughs will fuel you and take you farther down the line in love.
Here we are just a few days after this joke CRACKed us up, and Putin-foe Prigozhin’s plane turns up aflame in a field, with him ON THE PASSENGER LIST. The passenger list with twelve people on it and ten people confirmed dead and no real confirmation Prigozhin was on it? Color us suspicious.
Fortunately, Delia and I are also 85% compatible in media consumption preferences, so she not only tolerates, but has gotten deeply into air disaster documentary shows with me. So I know that when one comes out on THIS one … we will watch it together. In bed. With snacks.