Arthur and Sara bought green vegetables, but they usually let them go bad in the refrigerator because they could never remember to cook them. They preferred quick meals they could make during Star Trek commercials: packaged ravioli, pork sausages with rice, pasta.

Their friend Bea was experimenting with Mexican food and made intricate meals featuring beans. Her hands and feet were as small as a child's, and she moved gracefully around her large kitchen timing sauces and setting out cheese to be grated.

Sean, who lived with her, set the table and cleared and put a damp sponge to the counter. They weren't married, though once in a while Sara tried to get them to see the advantage of wedding gifts and group health insurance.

I have a complete set of matching steak knives, she told Bea. I have a cookie jar in the shape of a cowboy.

Marriage is the enslavement of women, Bea said.