Things That Bang

Next year we will be completing seven years of our marriage. A friend joked whether either of us were going to suffer the 'seven year itch'. I wondered whether there was something magical about the seventh year but my research showed me Monroe's legs. People best remember that phase from the movie- The 7-Year Itch:

The Seven Year Itch is best-known to us as the title of the 1955 film, starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell and directed by Billy Wilder. The plot of has Ewell's character working for a company that is about to publish a book suggesting that a many men have extra-marital affairs after seven years of marriage - called the "7-Year Itch". The film contains one of the most famous images in cinema history - Monroe's dress blowing up over a subway grating. That supposed urge for infidelity after seven years of marriage is the meaning we now have for this phrase. It is now often extended to refer to an urge to move on from any situation, and not even limited to those of seven years' duration.

But the phase actually goes back to the early 19th century referring to a highly contagious skin disease:

The condition, which was bacterial in nature - causing highly irritating red pimples on the face and body, is now so easily treated as to have been virtually forgotten. In the 19th and early 20th centuries though it was viewed as being so bad that it was used as an appropriate imagined punishment for antisocial behaviour - "he should be given the seven-year itch and not be allowed to scratch". The difficulty of getting any relief from the condition was also expressed in the simile - "as close as the seven-year itch".

The phase moved on from referring to red bumps on the skin to generally impatience to move away from a situation or person.

As far as me feeling the seven year itch goes I may reach a 20 years itch but by then I probably would have reached nirvana holding a tub of butterscotch ice cream.