I was reminded of one of my favorite old jokes today. As I went to tell it, I realized the version I had always used was not so politically correct--it was both sexist and heteronormative. Changing the nouns to second-person pronouns was the easiest way to make it gender neutral. Time and the advances in marriage equality for same-sex couples unstraightened the joke to make it LGBT inclusive. Happily, I think the joke is as funny as ever:
What's the difference between dating, being engaged and being married?
When you're dating, you say, "Faster! faster!"
When you're engaged, you say, "Slower... slower...."
When you're married, you say, "Beige. I think I'll paint the ceiling beige."
What do you think? Still funny?
PS: Why is does the "e" come before the "i" in "beige"? They don't come after a "c" and I don't really think of the vowel sound as being as an ā as in "neighbor" and "weigh". I guess it's on that list of exceptions I never bothered to learn.
