When 'just kidding' becomes the last straw

Benjamin, seventy-two, and his wife made a pact early on: we will not tease each other. He had to give up mimicking her cooking in front of friends. At first it felt less fun. Forty years later he says, "Teasing starts as laughter and ends as a verdict. For a day it's a joke; for ten years it's the air in the house." The closer someone is to you, the deeper the blade hidden behind "just kidding."