Sometimes I will literally write a whole article because I really want to use a particular headline or turn of phrase, and have to figure out a way to do so. This is sort of one of those. I forget who it was—a plumber, the movers, the carpet guy—but we had some work done on the house (we’ve had a lot of work done recently) and it all went surprisingly smoothly.

You see, last time I had an appliance tech to my house, he forgot to turn on the water to the washing machine and then he gashed my sheet vinyl floor. And last time I had a plumber, he gingerly touched the water shut-off valve and declared it broken—of course he could replace it—when a minute or two of me gently wiggling it brought it free. I called a different plumber next time...