My mother looked really depressed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“The decorating”, she replied.

“Why not pay someone else to do it?” I suggested.

“I can’t. The terms of the grant specify that the work must be completed by a family member”, she explained.

“Then ask TPR”, I said.

She looked at me sheepishly and shook her head. At first I thought that she meant that this would be a terrible imposition. I was wrong. After much probing she finally admitted the reason for her reluctance to hand over the paint brushes to my husband: his company was too boring.

It took just a few seconds for me to cite plenty of evidence to reject this claim. As I listed TPR’s “other talents”, my mother’s depression seemed to lift and she raised a sly smile.