THE BLUE COUCH OF WISDOM:

A few years ago, my family and I moved into a new home, and homes like this always mean a chance to buy furniture, right? So, I picked out a brand-new, blue-velvet couch for my home office, and when it arrived, I put it together and proudly staged it. I was excited to show my wife, and when I called her in to take a look, she responded in a way that I hadn’t expected. “Wow … that’s a very blue and velvet-looking couch … Wow,” she said, a little questionably. “I like it, but it doesn’t really fit there. I bet it’d look great in your real office.”