The art of making order

As the chief cook and former chief bottle-washer (my daughter has replaced me at that function) in my house, I love Le Guin's term for drudge-work: "the art of making order where people live". We are now paying someone once a week to do the physical order part, since Gale's not physically up to it any more (back troubles), but she still does all the organization and strawbossing.

I long ago devised the following classification of males into four grades:

• Grade 1: Will not do housework, period.
• Grade 2: Still will not do housework: feels guilty over it.
• Grade 3: Does anything you (fem.) ask, more or less cheerfully.
• Grade 4: Sees what needs to be done and does it.

Most men are still 1s or 2s, I am a 3 to a 4, depending on what's going on.