cross? sure.

Of late, Laura and I have experimented a bit with different ways of communicating. Maybe it's the distance during the week. Maybe it's having spent 20 years together. Does every couple do this at some point? Suggest they try a whole conversation with only one word at a time? Try singing a whole conversation?

I remember thinking up a cartoon about couples and conversation, back when I was in high school. Had I any drawing ability, I would have sent it in to the New Yorker, despite the fact that they had rejected a cartoon I had mailed in when I was maybe 13 (when it didn't matter so much to me that I can't draw). Back in those days, someone actually wrote to you to tell you your cartoon had been rejected. I had no idea, of course, that cartoonists present their drawings on schmancy boards in pristine ink drawings. No, mine was a blue felt tip drawing on a piece of scrap paper. Here is a replica -- same pen and everything -- of the drawing I mailed to the New Yorker circa 1968:

And I got a nice rejection note. Can you imagine?

The cartoon I thought of but couldn't draw was of two people looking at each other across a restaurant table. One says to the other: "Do you think we are in the middle of a comfortable silence, or do you think we've run out of things to say?" I still think some good cartoonist could make it work.

Laura and I have comfortable silences, and we've yet to run out of things to say. But we do sometimes play with communication styles. Mix it up, fogey style. So on a recent walk, Laura says, "Let's see how long we can go only using one-word sentences."
"Okay!"
"Cross?"
"Sure." [we cross the street]
"Supper?"
"Leftovers."
"Enough?"
"Plenty."
"Careful!"
"What."
"Poop."
"Thanks."
"Nice."
"What."
"Sky."
"Yeah."
"Snow."
"When?"
"Week."
"Huh?"
"Next."
"Oh."
"Avoid."
"Huh?"
"People."
"Okay."
"Turn."
"Okay."

So it went for a few miles. There was a lot of "huh" and "what" and maybe that ended up as cheating, since that way you can kind of cobble together a whole thought. But it made the walk a little quieter and cozier.

That night, still on a roll, I tried a different technique. I tried to express an important and fairly complex thought with my mouth full of toothpaste. And the amazing thing is that Laura understood what I was saying. I was standing by the bed near my pile of books. I shook my head. I said, "Mmmfff mmfff mmffff mmmmmfffff mmmmmffff," with no lip action at all. I raised my arms and looked exasperated. She said, "So much to learn, so little time?"

That was exactly what I had said. I felt so happy and loved. And mmmfff mmmmfff!*

*so lucky