In British Columbia a person who has lived and cohabited with another person, for a period of at least 2 years is considered a common law spouse acording to the "Estate Administration Act"

This is surprisingly common amongst my relatives.

I remember POSSLQ in the sense of "I heard it mocked", but not in the sense of "I actually heard anyone anywhere ever use it with a straight face". (The straightness of it being part of the problem, of course).

Anybody remember the brief life of POSSLQ - "Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quaters"? It might have caught on if it had been pronounceable. And not stupid.

I remember reading a poem (or song lyrics) about a POSSLQ in Time or Newsweek back in the late '70s. Only time I've heard that term.

And even that term sucks, as I've have lots of female housemates who I was not dating.

I believe the term was from a time when persons of opposite sex probably wouldn't have been living together if they weren't *living together*. Unless they were hippies or something. Late 70's, I think.

I moved into a co-ed dorm my sophomore year and my mom nearly had a coronary.

Were I to have found myself in such circumstances, I wouldve suggested "Godless Tramp I Shack Up With" as the official title. Alas, the only person who fit that description was my brother.

Frasier and Lillith said it on Cheers, so I assume nobody really used it. I could be wrong; I was twelve then.

"Godless Tramp I Shack Up With"

That's too long. How about GTISUW?

Pronounced Git It Sue, of course.

If you think using girlfriend in English is confusing, in Hebrew is so much worse.

It's THE SAME FREAKING WORD for a female friend/girlfriend, and a male friend/boyfriend.

So there's a word that's almost halfway between friend and an acquaintance, but I don't like using it much. Some people aren't my acquaintances, dammit, they're my friends and it's not their fault they're males.

In such cases, to make clear we're no romantically involved yet they're very best friends of mine, I use the boyfriend/friend word without specify it as definite. There's no confusion if I say "a friend/boyfriend of mine".

At least, not yet.

Thank God I'm monogamic.

Now I feel bad for my parents. They would never ask me if I was dating anybody, and I never told them I was, because I never was. So it turns out they were often assuming my female flatmates were my girlfriends. Then when my best friend died of AIDS, they assumed we must have been lovers so they started to worry I might have AIDS too.

My mother once sat on a jury for a trial that lasted 9 months.

Your mom knitted during that trial, right? (not the courtroom parts, but I think I remember seeing the results).