Draconian

Inspired by the word-of-the-day; "Draconian", in addition to a conversation I had in lab today where someone asserted that a woman could get killed for committing adultery in the United States. I said "Um. No," although I was surprised to learn (thanks, wikipedia!) that some states have yet to decriminalize adultery (although it is hardly ever prosecuted anymore, and apparently there's at least one Supreme Court precedent that makes it difficult and questionable to apply any laws that still do happen to be on the books). The most amusing example was Maryland, whose punishment was a $10 fine -- which to me seems so very lenient as to be the worst of both worlds; it puts what is really a private thing between three people into the public, judicial, domain and it leans towards mocking the distress of the cheated-on. No good for anyone. And that sparked this:

You don’t seem to understand; I found her in bed with another man. In my bed, in my house, bought and mortgaged with my hard-earned money. With another man. I found my wife in bed with another man, she’s leaving me, and you seem to think that a ten dollar fine will just make everything better. Sorry for cheating on you, turning your suburban paradise into a twisted mockery of love and matrimony, how about I buy you dinner and we call it even?

Actually, you can’t buy dinner for ten dollars. That’s hardly even a cup of coffee anymore.

Clearly, my work today involved too many incubations/spins where I had fifteen minutes of empty time. Not enough to really read a paper, too much to just stare at the wall. So skimming wikipedia it is.