Let me begin with a story I once heard...

...a man was telling me a story. He said "My wife has a mood ring -its great- it always tells me exactly what mood she is in. When she is in a good mood and when she is happy and calm, the mood-ring glows a relaxing blue colour... but when she is angry and upset, it leaves a big red mark on my forehead!"

Ok, so now its time to ask another social etiquette question, although this time it wasn't me -honestly- it was a friend of mine. Personally I think he was generally in the clear on this one...although he did make a few small mistakes. All in all I'm backing the boy in this one... but something tells me that 51% of the population out there might disagree with me.

Now, I was once again banned from referring to him by name, and also banned from calling him "Mr R.C. who drops bench press bars on his own head", so I think for the sake of total respect of his privacy, I shall refer to him as "the little coconut" or TLC for short. So, now that we have gotten that little bit of housekeeping out of the way, it is time to tell the story.

The Little Coconut (TLC) and a girl are driving along in the car and TLC notices that the girl is a little more grumpy than usual, and in his male foolishness opens his mouth and asks her why. He says something along the lines of "Are you ok? Because you have been extra grumpy lately". (TLC's first mistake)

She replies that she is fine and perfectly normal and that he should keep his mouth shut to prevent verbal diarrhoea.

He presses on (TLC's second mistake) and says something like "No, really you have been all grumpy lately... are you PMSing or something?"

At this point the girl turns to TLC and asks him "Do you want a slap?", and then TLC gets defensive, and pleads his innocence and ignorance. At this point in the conversation the girl orders TLC out of the car and refuses to take him any further. Over reaction or justified response?

So here is my question, is what The Little Coconut asked unreasonable? Should guys never mention these kinds of things to girls under threat of castration? And secondly, if TLC and the girl had been dating for a couple of years, is it still a question that should remain off limits?

Actually, writing this reminded me of another joke that frequents male dominated circuits... like the mens conference...

"Why did they call it 'PMS' and not something else?"
"Because mad cow disease was already taken!"

*covers head and runs away for protection*