My husband was sure that Jim, the appliance serviceman dispatched for our annual washer/dryer check-up, would have nothing to say about detergent preferences. Our tete a tete in the laundry room, he tried to convince me, would simply confirm that our front-loading high efficiency machines were meeting industry standards.   I raced ahead to our laundry room to line up the questionable detergent boxes. And as I waited for Jim, I wondered whether our fluffy towels and dirty gym clothes were sometimes at odds in the suds.  I’d ask him about the upper range of full loads, too —  if he stayed...

I’m married to a master negotiator. He was born with the will to make things happen. He even makes stuck wheels turn his way.  I’m guessing it has something to do with his Type B blood, instant know-how passed through ancestors who refused to give in.  Not me.  I prefer to find things hidden under mossy stones. I let my eyes lead and turn up my ears when something makes them glow.  True, I lit up when Dustin Hoffman was asked at the Golden Globes about who he’d most like to spend time with that night and he inched closer to his wife of so many years, and declared:...