That was the first thing that came to my mind when I read this article. Had to check wiki for the date: 1919. Sports have always been about scandal.

Players are exemplars. We watch them to learn lessons about how to deal with success and failure. We watch them to learn what sportsmanship looks like, what being a scoundrel looks like. We say, "If I had that much money, I wouldn't buy bling for my teeth, I'd found a medical program for children." We say, "Geez, look at his wife. I guess you can afford a wife like that if you're a star." The problems stars have today are the problems people have today, only bigger.

I read some research about sports fans not too long ago; not only do winners in a sport get a boost of testosterone, which theoretically makes them more attractive, but fans get a testosterone boost when their team wins. The testosterone levels of fans of losing teams drop following the loss. Could explain why so many more men than women are obsessed with following sports.

Except maybe not an open basket. You don't want to smell his stinky laundry.

When it's root, hog, or die, he will learn.

There's one thing I noticed about all of this: it started when he lost his job. He lost his job, which probably wasn't very good for his ego, and then you said, "Since you're basically a useless sack of shit now, why don't you at least do the laundry?" Not a good thing to do. If he had free time, he should have spent more time looking for a new job, not doing laundry.

He probably resents the hell out of you from that time on. It's no wonder this has become a power struggle.

I'm convinced this lady isn't just kinky, she's deeply mentally disturbed.

Ten days into this diet I feel so much better I can't believe I ever let myself eat the way I was eating. It is still hard. I have a kid who is trying to wheedle junk food constantly--but it got easier. I caught a glimpse of myself as I would be if I weighed 140 pounds. I saw someone who wasn't a beauty queen but a healthy lady. I see someone with a trim figure and an attractive face. She was wearing a skirt and blouse and a little make up. You may not believe this but I want to be dainty. Now that I have you chuckling, I have to tell you it is the best word for what I want. I've never been dainty, feminine, petite, or delicate in any way. In my youth I had the distinction of chining myself from a bar more than any other girl in my school. I beat most of the boys. Now, I'm still kind of proud of that and have even started with small weights but I still want to look in the mirror and see a dainty lady looking back at me. I think it has to do with more than weight. When I was young I counted on my strength to protect myself. Now I am willing to let my husband be my protector. Not that I'm willing to be helpless but I am willing to let myself be dainty. I'd like to go out (the 140 pound version) in that outfit and heels so high DH has to take my elbow to help me with steps.

I know that image in my mind is very important to me. It is the idea of what I would be at the weight God intended me to be.

Translation: she's insecure about her femininity. God wants her not to be able to walk.

My husband and I discussed this article. His take is roughly the same as mine, but he had a few additional insights which I thought were worth sharing.

Let's follow the course of events.

1) Equitable distribution of chores; 2 jobs.

2) Husband loses job; wife tries to renegotiate distribution of chores, adding additional chores to her husband's workload. Husband resists. (It's not clear from the letter whether he nominally agreed to do his own laundry and then didn't do it, or whether he never even nominally agreed.) Note that the husband continues to do the chores he had previously agreed to do. In addition, note that wife resents his "obsession with golf."

3) Husband returns to work. He sets his own hours. It's not clear from the letter whether this was always the case or whether he now works fewer hours than he did originally. In any case, wife believes that his return does not indicate that they should return to the original, equitable, chore distribution.

4) Wife takes on additional responsibilities involving grandkids.

It's pretty clear where the problem lies: at step 2. The husband never agreed to the redistribution of chores. He's carrying out his original agreement, the one which the LW herself admitted was equitable before he lost his job.

If you want things to change, you're going to have to get him to agree that they aren't fair as they are now. It's going to have to be a two-sided agreement, not a demand for him to do more chores. Adults don't demand that other adults do more chores. It doesn't work that way. Adults rightly resent it when others try to renegotiate agreements without their input. Yes, you can dump his laundry in a basket and leave it there, but don't be surprised if he retaliates by refusing to clean the gutters. You are the one trying to change the original agreement.