From today's Chronicle of Higher Ed: The worst question you can ask an academic couple is, "Are you going to end up together?" This man, a graduate student at Harvard, wants to end up in a short-distance, rather than long-distance, relationship with his wife. One question though: while he talks at length about how hard it is for a Ph.D. in American History to find an academic job, he doesn't once *say* what his wife does. We're supposed to assume that she's in the American History department too, but still, it was a little confusing. There are two married couples in my department who were the inspiration for this post, and no, I don't ask them The Worst Question. :-)