OK, I see there is some sort of getting-even irony here. But how is it performed? Is there really a diamond bracelet? Who is getting it, if there is one, and how is that a revenge? Or if the oddity is merely due to an omitted “not”, would that mean the husband was expecting to receive a bracelet?
Comics I Don't Understand 
She got him something that was really for her. Since his actual present to her was so lame, she’s not feeling guilty about it any more…
She could have gotten him the bracelet, knowing it won’t suit him and he would turn it over to her. So that strategy is something she might be apologetic for, except that now she is put out about receiving the iron so she will not be apologetic over the bracelet. This is just my theory, which is mine….
Yep, she bought herself the bracelet. Thanks to his less stellar gift, she now feels okay about doing so.
I’m not surprised at all that two women figured this one out first.
Actually jjmcgaffey posted their similar answer first, but it was stuck in Spam queue until after deety and chemgal had posted theirs. (And as usual, no I don’t know why it would be held back.)
“Iron-y” heh heh
Like the gifts we picked out for our parents when we were 4 years old. I think Daddy would love to have an electric train set.
My father did have a train set in his 30s (his 20s were largely taken up with the war, until he left the RAF at 28). But by the time I was born when he was 40 the family had moved abroad and his trains were (mostly) left behind. We did have a small Märklin set that I think technically belonged to my older brother (who, by the time I was three, spent most of the year back in England at boarding school so he didn’t get much use out of them). My father was an airline pilot but would much rather have been a steam engine driver.
While we’re at it, when my parents married in the early ’60s, my father asked Mom what she wanted for Christmas. Her answer? A model train set. Dad got her a second-hand set, and thus a lifelong interest in railroading for the entire family was born. :-)
When I was young I wanted an electric train set “just like my cousin Scott’s”. Yes, I got a set. I am not sure it was not because my dad wanted a set also. We glued the tracks to a large piece of plywood – unfortunately we also ran the train over the tracks on the plywood in the basement before it was dry and the engine never ran again.
Grew up, got married – had a basement again and a husband who also liked electric trains. So we we made layout in our basement – tracks tacked down not glued – and have had fun with it. I did bring my old train cars to our house to add in. My engine which does not run is “on display” at the train museum on the layout. When we were at my parents looking for my train cars I was rummaging around in the tall, deep shelves in the basement. Robert kept telling me to give up – they were not there. I stuck my hand into the mess one last time and it came out holding that same engine – which was enough to keep looking as then he believed me that the train stuff was “in there somewhere”.
Current layout is a bit tongue in check in what is there – there is a diner with a car with Presidential logo on it parked adjacent (Pres. Carter in our heads). The main buildings are suppose to be our craft business – a fabric crafts building, a woodshop, and so on. There is also a train museum (with the old engine).
@ Grawlix (9) – My mom always hated the idea of any kind of household appliance as a “gift”. Once or twice, we kids wrapped her “real” gift in a leftover box from a blender or some such (as a joke). We kids thought it was hilarious, but I don’t think that she thought it was very funny.
Fast forward twenty or thirty years later: one winter she told me her iron was on its last legs, and that I should pick out a new super-duper model and give it to her as a Christmas present. I said that would be fine, but first I wanted to take her temperature and make sure she wasn’t feeling sick. I should ask her whether she is still using the same one I bought.
P.S. Here’s one of H.T. Webster’s comics about “The Thrill That Comes Once in a Lifetime, from December 1948:
I like that boys’ mother. (or is it for him?)
@ Meryl A (12) – He may give that set to his mom, but his intentions are definitely not altruistic.
Three women. And maybe I don’t comment enough, but yeah, my comments tend to end up in one moderation queue or another every time…
@ jj (1 & 14) – Which makes the effect even more impressive, even if I had no way to count you in when I commented (then @3, now @4).
P.S. Don’t take moderation personally, it’s an arcane black box over which the Editors have little (if any) control. Neither did Bill.
One xmas many years ago, my kids gave me a pair of roller blades in a size way too small for me but, how convenient, fit the oldest perfectly. Best gift ever two ways. It got them out of the house for years as each of them grew out of or into them and I got to enjoy their antics.