In the theater, there is a principle known as check-offs gun.

Comes from something one said by Anton Chekhov, the Great Russian author and playwright.

You mustn't put a loaded rifle on stage if no one intends to fire it.

You shouldn't make promises.

Chekhov, who is also a doctor and a very wise man, knew what he was talking about.

He's the most produced playwright after Shakespeare, and there are a lot of guns in his place.

That's Laura Straussfeld, a check-off expert.

She is a visiting scholar at Columbia University's Haramann Institute.

The use of check-offs gun implies certain number of things, for example, that there's something

inherently dangerous.

Someone will get hurt.

So if you're a writer, which I happen to be, you don't put something in your story,

something potentially explosive, unless it's going to explode.

You don't, for instance, introduce a nice Midwestern couple just to talk about how nice they

are.

I've never asked anyone this question before, but as marriages go on a scale of like one

to ten, ten being the best, how would you rate your marriage?

I would say presently.

Wait, before you do it, hang on.

I both want you to say the number at the same time.

Oh my goodness.

Here.

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