[darklajid]

An alternative viewpoint:

I considered that an article that took a real discussion (I assume he did explain it to his wife) that wasn't recorded, wrote it up in a way that resembles a conversation in which the wife is the one the explanation is targeted.

The article wasn't about his wife, for all I care about. Replace it with 'son', 'father', 'drinking buddy' and the article format could've been the same. The author expands that train of thought that helped him explain the topic at hand in a recent conversation, the other party is merely a placeholder for the real thing that took place before.

Actually, it reminded me a little of teacher/scholar type of 'dialoges', not Socrates, not Master Wq from the vim koans, but something inbetween and related. It was a frame for the real content - and in my world not at all offending.