Ampersand

[magid]

Some couples are always X & Y. Other couples are always Y & X. And some are ambidextrous, as it were. I keep wondering why that is. Who you know first? Who you know better? (Who you're related to?) Shorter name (in syllables) first? Is it partly situational? The one with a title first? Or just an elusively-defined "it sounds better that way"? (For bi-gender couples: Always man first? Always woman first?)

Comments

the dimplebottom

[magid.livejournal.com]

Each of them has a reasonably distinctive first name, so I almost never think of their last name as a way to refer to the two of them. I don't remember how long it was until I actually heard their last name, even. (I suspect I'm more likely to say "dimplebottoms".)