Superfluous
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The following post was made this morning in a separate thread:
That got me thinking. Many of us have to deal with the response of a wife/significant other when we purchase a new jacket or other article of clothing that we clearly do not need. After we have stealthily moved the jacket/clothing from our car to our closet – you know what I am taking about – there is that moment of truth when we don the new item for the first time and face the music/firing squad arising from our latest wholly unnecessary expenditure.
The conversation in my house frequently goes something like this:
Wife: “Is that a new ____________________________ [jacket/shirt/etc.]?”
Me: “No baby . . . I have owned this for ages . . . you have seen it many times before.”
This approach only works if the new item is not profoundly unique or distinctive. If I am getting something that is sufficiently dissimilar to anything I currently own, and will likely be perceived as such by my wife, I usually attempt to soften the blow with an advance disclosure, coupled with a statement (inaccurately) trivializing the cost.
As an overlay to the foregoing, I actively buy clothing/jackets/pursues for my wife so that she does not perceive any disparate treatment (fortunately, I enjoy doing so).
What about you? Complete candor? Partial candor? Outright deception?
That got me thinking. Many of us have to deal with the response of a wife/significant other when we purchase a new jacket or other article of clothing that we clearly do not need. After we have stealthily moved the jacket/clothing from our car to our closet – you know what I am taking about – there is that moment of truth when we don the new item for the first time and face the music/firing squad arising from our latest wholly unnecessary expenditure.
The conversation in my house frequently goes something like this:
Wife: “Is that a new ____________________________ [jacket/shirt/etc.]?”
Me: “No baby . . . I have owned this for ages . . . you have seen it many times before.”
This approach only works if the new item is not profoundly unique or distinctive. If I am getting something that is sufficiently dissimilar to anything I currently own, and will likely be perceived as such by my wife, I usually attempt to soften the blow with an advance disclosure, coupled with a statement (inaccurately) trivializing the cost.
As an overlay to the foregoing, I actively buy clothing/jackets/pursues for my wife so that she does not perceive any disparate treatment (fortunately, I enjoy doing so).
What about you? Complete candor? Partial candor? Outright deception?
, getting some 'dirt' on her 
