Outsmarting the spite

יבמות דף סג ע"א 

רב הוה קא מצערא ליה דביתהו כי אמר לה עבידי לי טלופחי עבדא ליה חימצי חימצי עבדא ליה טלופחי כי גדל חייא בריה אפיך לה אמר ליה איעליא לך אמך אמר ליה אנא הוא דקא אפיכנא לה אמר ליה היינו דקא אמרי אינשי דנפיק מינך טעמא מלפך את לא תעביד הכי שנאמר (ירמיהו ט) למדו לשונם דבר שקר 

Yevamot 63a 

Rav would get tormented by his wife. Whatever he would ask of her, she would spitefully do the opposite. If he would ask for lentil soup, he would get chimtzi beans. If he would ask for chimtzi beans, he would get lentils. 

One day, he found that she had made lentils, just like he had requested! 

"Your mother finally stopped mistreating me!" he happily told his son Chiya.

"Actually..." Chiya said, "I told Mom that you want chimtzi beans today. I knew she would switch it on you and you would get the dinner you were actually craving."

"That's what they mean when they say, 'That which you produce is more capable than you are.' However, you must stop. It is, after all, dishonest to trick your mother like that. One must never use dishonest means for getting what he wants, lest it becomes a habit."

Sometimes in life, we find that we can outsmart people's hurtful behavior by lowering ourselves to their standards. However, A"A demonstrates from this gemara, this is not the correct approach. We must maintain our standard of behavior at all times, even when dealing with spiteful spouses and other unpleasantness. 

Gross Anatomy

בכורות דף מה ע"א

מעשה בתלמידיו של ר' ישמעאל ששלקו זונה אחת שנתחייבה שריפה למלך בדקו ומצאו בה מאתים וחמשים ושנים אמר להם שמא באשה בדקתם שהוסיף לה הכתוב שני צירים ושני דלתות

Bechorot 45a 

There was once a prostitute who was sentenced to death by the king. Her cadaver was given over to the students of Ribbi Yishmael to corrode and perform osteological studies. After studying her bones, they concluded that there were 252 bones, and not 248 like the Mishnah in Massechet Ohalot (1:9) claims! When they reported this discrepancy to their teacher, he asked them, "Was it a woman which you dissected? A woman's pelvis does not ossify in the same manner that a man's does!"

It is worth noting that according to today's anatomists, the adult human only has 206 bones. A"A addresses this by quoting the Encylopedia HaIvrit, which explains that the Talmudic account of 248 was not meant to be an account of complete bones but rather of ossification centers. 

I would like to add a suggestion. Perhaps the difference lies in the definition of adulthood: anatomical adulthood is defined by the completion of ossification (which occurs at around 20 years of age) while Halachic adulthood is defined as 12 or 13 years of age (for females and males respectively) or the onset of pubic hair growth (if it occurs after that age). Anatomists would agree that at 13 years of age, there are somewhere between 270 and 206 bones in the body.