No, ours is a something-out-of-a-'40s-movie kind of pillow fight.

It involves the lavender throw pillow we have on our couch. One side of it is a single shade, the other side has a design. Jessica prefers the plain side; I prefer the side with the design. Every time one of us sets the pillow to the side we like, the other comes along when no one is looking and switches it back around to the other side.

This has gone on for more than a year now.

I have learned to be strategic about it. Rather than always changing it back, I have become a stealth changer-backer. I wait for precisely the right moment, that occasion when it will make the most important impression. Then I strike.

For example, while housecleaning on a Saturday morning before a dinner party, Jessica may fluff the throw pillow and set it just so in a corner of the sofa. Its plain side will be showing. Just when the guests are walking up the porch steps and Jessica is answering the door, I switch the pillow back to its design side.

The good doctor may believe that our behavior is pathological and self-defeating and potentially globally ruinous. To which I say, "Hey, works for us."

We even have science on our side. According to a recent BBC report, "Women who argue with their husbands are warding off heart disease." If arguing is good for women, my wife must be the healthiest woman on the planet.

The study also found that women who argue with their husbands live longer than those who don't. At our rate, Jessica will live forever.

"We believe we have found characteristics of marriages that have an impact on people's health and longevity," lead researcher Elaine Eaker was quoted as saying.

She doesn't say what the effect is on the husband. However, women typically live longer than men. So it seems that might be some indication of the impact.