‘You want me to pull the kids out of school for what?”

I could tell that my wife didn’t like my idea because she had used the tone she uses when I say something that is, to employ the pet phrase she employs in such instances, “really stupid.”

“For Guaspari Family Quality Day,” I replied. “We take a day to talk about how critical quality is to achieving our familial goals and objectives. It’s all written up in this brochure.”

I handed a copy to my wife. She held it as though it were a five-month-old eggplant that had just emerged from the bottom of the crisper.

“You printed a brochure about how we can become a quality control family?” she asked. Her tone hadn’t changed.

“No,” I said, smiling affectionately. I was charmed by her sweetly naive perspective, which equated quality with the much narrower discipline of quality control. “There’ll be plenty of time to get into meaty content on Quality Day,” I continued. “The brochure is intended merely to announce the meeting and build enthusiasm for it.” I held up my copy. “Looks pretty good, don’t you think?”

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