BB

What do women think about their husbands or boyfriends calling them "baby"?

"Hey baby, come sit on daddy's lap."

"Aw, come on baby. I swear it was a one-night stand."

"I love ya, baby. You drive me crazy. I can't get you out of my head."

Last night, my wife and I watched the film noir classic "Double Indemnity" on TCM. The glib, cynical, calculating character portrayed by Fred MacMurray, may be his best performance. Barbara Stanwyck, no slouch in the acting chops department herself, seems small against MacMurray's dominant personality.

An added bonus is supporting actor Edward G. Robinson, who delivers one of the greatest soliloquies of all time.

But what I noticed most amid the shadows and odd camera angles was how MacMurray kept calling Stanwyck "baby."

In thirty years of being together, my wife and I have never addressed each other by that term. I don't really like it when I hear it. Some members of my family use it and I don't really like it when I hear it. It seems like the epitome of patronization.

Sure, I'm as guilty as anyone of turning to a buddy and saying, "Hey, check out that babe." But it's not my style to go up to a woman, flick my eyebrows, and say, "Hi baby, wanna party with daddy?"

However, I would make one - and ONLY one - exception, and that is in the case of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. What baby wants, baby gets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKrrAa2o9Eg (Trailer)