How Marriage Works Part V

So you all know the Joke Convention joke, right? A weary traveler walks into a hotel lobby and he passes an open door to an auditorium. Inside, a man walks up to the microphone and says, "Ninety-nine." The audience gives a polite academic titter. He exits and a woman walks up to the microphone and says, "Three-fifty-two," at which the audience bursts into hysterical laughter, doubled over with tears streaming down their faces. The traveler asks the bellhop, "What gives?" and the bellhop explains that the hotel is hosting a Joke Tellers' Convention. "They know all the jokes already," says the bellhop, "So they don't have to tell 'em. They just call out each joke's number." So the traveler is feeling daring. He gets in line to call out the next joke. When it's his turn at the microphone, he says, "Ahem. Six?" There's dead silence. Someone in the first row mutters, "Some people just don't know how to tell a story."

All of this is background to How Marriage Works Part V.

Last night, Mike and I were discussing the Southwest frequent flyer plan which, if you accumulate really a lot of a lot of points, gives you buy-one-get-one-free status on all your plane tickets for a year--perfect for bringing spouses on road trips. Mike is nowhere near this goal, but we agreed it would be fun.

"That'd be TFA," I said.
"Yeah," said Mike, "It'd be STS."
"Fourteen!" he shouted at the exact moment that I was shouting "Thirty-four!"
And, of course, we laughed really hard, cause we already knew the joke.