Unholy Night

Ouch. It's That Couch. A Seasonal Paean to the Sofa Bed.

By Henry Allen, Washington Post Staff Writer

December 19, 1996

This is the season of the sofa bed, the hideaway, the convertible couch and the semi-bohemian hospital module known as the futon.

Family and friends gather for the holidays. They drink their host's wine, they demand to be chauffeured to museums. (Why is it that with relatives, taxis are taboo, an insult, an abomination?) They argue for so long about how long to cook the turkey that it gets overcooked until it crumbles like marzipan at the first touch of a carving knife. The host's revenge is the sofa bed.

God rest ye on your sofa bed,

Though frame and springs dismay,

Remember gr…