and I don't understand why.  I've always been faithful to her.

Let me tell you the story.

There is a couple that lives in our neighborhood, Bill and Bernadine.  They're college professors.  We first met them about 12 years ago, when a mutual friend, Alice, got us invited to a cookout at their house.

We don't know Bill and Bernadine that well.  Bill and I were both on the board of our neighborhood homeowners' association for a few years.  And we see them on occasion at the school fall festival and such.

Anyway, it turns out that years ago, even before we met them, Bill and Bernadine were big swingers, into free love.  My wife and I aren't prudes or anything, but no way are we going there.

So last week my wife gets a call late one night from her friend Marie, who was very upset, and rushes out of the house to comfort her.  Marie had just found out that her husband was having an affair with his secretary.

A couple of days later, my wife hears that on that very same night, this guy Bill was spouting off at some party about how people aren't meant to be monogamous, and everyone should just be having sex with everyone else and not be so hung up on it.

So she comes home, tells me that she's sure that I feel exactly the same as Bill, and leaves with the kids to go to her mother's house.

I just don't understand.

My wife e-mailed the Deborah Howell, Washington Post's ombudsman, to ask why Obama is identified as black or African-American and not mixed-race, a subject which has been commented on here from time to time.  And here is the response:

He identifies himself as black. That's why the news media does.

Deborah Howell
Washington Post Ombudsman