8“HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT I WANT?”

True story. Really.

Several holiday seasons ago I was stuck with the age-old question husbands have been asking for about 2,000 years: What do I get my wife for Christmas?

We’ve been married for a lot of years, and you’d think that this sort of thing would get easier. After all, as time goes by spouses know one another better, and it would seem self-evident that you’d understand more about one another’s tastes. You’d have a better idea of what your spouse really wants to find under the Christmas tree on December 25, and you could just go out to the store (or, these days, sit down at the computer) and get it.

That’s what you’d think.

In point of fact, I find the problem more complicated. After all, as a result of ...

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