How did that joke go again?

Every so often you will see a joke tapping into the "marriage gone stale" angst so prevalent in this fine country of ours. Usually it will go something like this:

"I got a gun for my wife. Good trade."

As if, you know, there is more value to an inanimate object than there is to a living, breathing human being. At least, we HOPE she is living and breathing. I guess in retrospect it would not surprise me too much to hear that there were necrophiliac marriages going on. Though I have studiously avoided writing about them I have seen something like a half dozen cases of people hanging out with dead spouses so they could continue collecting pensions...as funny as those are, they have a tinge of sadness.

Now, if the trade works for both parties, then it might work. For example, if after the trade you can say, "The deal was reached when my wife gave her approval. The goat has given birth to three kids and my wife to none.
"So this deal was more profitable to the goat owner, I got a second-hand goat and he got a brand new wife" as Stoil Panayotov did then perhaps you would consider it.

One wonders how well they got along if she is interested in leaving for a goat...was Panayotov such a varlet she could not stand to live with him? Was their fine silverware just a spork? Was he always coming up to her saying, "Would you like a spanking?" only to have her reply, "Yes, just not from you"? This situation smacks of knavery.

I assume a year from now when the lucky recipient of the new wife is asked how he feels about it, he might show some disappoint me and say, "That Panayotov really gets my goat."