38 the previous year. However, this is in part down to fewer people getting married in the first place. Census figures published last month show that married people have become a minority for the first time. The number of people in England and Wales describing their marital status as divorced grew by 20 per cent to 4.1 million. (Sam Marsden, Telegraph.co.uk, 1/4/2013) Are You a POSSLQ? Forty-four percent of American adults are unmarried. Seven million Americans live with a paramour who is not a spouse. Until the 1970s, the American faux spouse was too rare and taboo to even try to track. In 1980, the United States Census Bureau made its first attempt at naming these creatures in order to count them. It really outdid itself lexicographically: “person of opposite sex sharing living quarters,” abbreviated to POSSLQ and pronounced “possle cue.” The CBS commentator Charles Osgood had his way with the acronym, publishing a poem (reproduced in full) riffing John Donne’s “The Bait.” (Elizabeth Weil, NY Times, 1/6/2013)
MY POSSLQ Come live with me and be my love, And we will some new pleasures prove Of golden sands and crystal brooks With silken lines, and silver hooks. There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do If you would be my POSSLQ. You live with me, and I with you, And you will be my POSSLQ. I’ll be your friend and so much more; That’s what a POSSLQ is for. And everything we will confess; Yes, even to the IRS. Some day on what we both may earn, Perhaps we’ll file a joint return. You’ll share my pad, my taxes, joint; You’ll share my life - up to a point! And that you’ll be so glad to do, Because you’ll be my POSSLQ. Les Wallerstein is a family mediator and collaborative lawyer in Lexington. He can be contacted at (781) 862-1099, or at wallerstein@socialaw.com
“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” Bob Dylan Winter 2013 • Vol. 12 No. 1