This week's cover story about the new sexual conservatism is noteworthy for more than its examination of changing American mores. It marks another appearance (the twelfth, to be exact) in TIME'S pages of Ralph and Wanda, those conjugal commentators on the foibles and follies of our culture. Their scrappy discussion of the return to high monogamy in the U.S. accompanies and artfully augments the main narrative.

The contentious couple is the creation of Associate Editor John Leo, who also wrote the main story, with assistance from Reporter-Researcher Val Castronovo. Says Leo: "I first got the idea for Ralph and Wanda during the Me decade's deluge of weird therapies and odd self-realization manuals. The couple provides a way of dealing quickly and lightly with a lot of ephemera." Ralph and Wanda made their debut in 1977, when Ralph heard of several new books about the challenge of middle age. (Stanley, the friend who, as part of his "midolescent" crisis, ran off in that episode with a meter maid, makes a reappearance in this week's dialogue.) Ralph and Wanda have since gone on to discuss female fire fighters (Ralph was predictably opposed), real men vs. quiche eaters (secondhand masculinity) and anger (letting it all hang out is out). Leo's favorite is a December 1982 column in which Wanda updates Ralph's sexual vocabulary. Says Leo: "Swingers had become 'multifriended,' and group sex had turned into 'sharing.' It was fun skewering all the gassy euphemisms."

While not conceding for a minute that the male jingoist Ralph might be a vehicle for his own views, Leo admits that the original Wanda was a bit wan, serving as a foil for her splenetic spouse. "The characters have developed over the years," says their creator. "It used to be Ralph the triumphant curmudgeon teasing Wanda the trendy feminist. But Wanda has become a lot smarter. For one thing, the column worked better that way. Each of them could express sharper opinions and then get corrected or put down or yelled at by the other. Also, as my two teen-age daughters grew older, they began complaining that I wasn't treating Wanda fairly. So now Wanda has acquired 60 to 70 additional IQ points, and the dialogue has become a moderately baroque version of a real debate."