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Advice Columns - Do You Still Read Them? Did You Ever Write to One, or Know Someone Who Did?

I enjoy Carolyn Hax in WaPo. Her responses are usually well thought-out , although one would think the advice is only as good as the letter writer's ability to adequately cover what Carolyn needs to know.

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by Anonymousreply 39September 10, 2023 6:26 AM

I love them. Google News serves me up Abby, Carolyn, Amy and the Zombie Miss Manners column every morning.

Can't say I get into Harriette Cole, Annie's Mailbag or the rest of the Washington Post advisers (except sometimes Damon Young).

Who I really miss is Ann Landers' tart daughter, Margo Howard, who had two different incarnations: Dear Prudence and Dear Margo. She had four marriages (including Ken Howard) and titled her memoir "Eat, Drink, and Remarry."

And, no, I've never written to an advice columnist.

by Anonymousreply 1January 17, 2023 1:03 AM

It's Ann Landers and Dear Abby, for their wit and brevity.

by Anonymousreply 2January 17, 2023 1:19 AM

I don't read them. With age comes the awareness that most people are idiots. No need to read about it.

by Anonymousreply 3January 17, 2023 1:22 AM

Dear Dotti.

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by Anonymousreply 4January 17, 2023 1:57 AM

Ask Amy was (is) awful. I remember when my local paper carried her column. Her advice was almost always terrible.

Isn't Margo Howard Dear Abby's daughter? I thought she wrote Dear Abby with her mother until Dear Abby was too far gone into dementia and then Margo took it over.

I'll still read advice columns occasionally for the laughs. I used to read some of the columns in Slate until that trans"man" took it over and every piece of advice seemed to revolve around woke bullshit. There was a sex column I used to check out too, but their advice was always ludicrous.

by Anonymousreply 5January 17, 2023 2:13 AM

[quote]Isn't Margo Howard Dear Abby's daughter? I thought she wrote Dear Abby with her mother until Dear Abby was too far gone into dementia and then Margo took it over.

No, Jeanne Phillips is Abby's daughter (and Margo's cousin) who took over for Abby.

The cousins get along even worse than Ann/Abby did. Margo has accused Jeanne of trying to get her column in Ann Landers' papers before the body was cold.

by Anonymousreply 6January 17, 2023 2:23 AM

Margo Howard is Ann Landers's daughter. Jeanne Phillips is Dear Abby's daughter. Jeanne took over the column; when Abby was suffering with dementia. I like Jeanne Phillips. She maintains the spirit of Dear Abby. I haven't read Margo Howard's column.

by Anonymousreply 7January 17, 2023 2:24 AM

Ah, thank you, R6 and R7.

by Anonymousreply 8January 17, 2023 4:28 AM

I like Carolyn Hax quite a lot--her advice is always sensible to me.

They did a weird podcast last week for the Post where they asked her to give advice to the royal family (whom she says she's never been very interested in). Most of the questions were worded in the forms of letters written by the staff supposed to be from the King, Catherine, William... It was interesting to see that Hax thought the biggest original problem was when the boys asked their dad not to marry Camilla, which she thought forever complicated their relationship with their dad. Hax argues since the boys were both adults by then (22 and 20), it was not really their right to ask for authority over whom their father married.

by Anonymousreply 9January 17, 2023 4:37 AM

I love Dear Dotti, America's Most Outspoken Advice Columnist.

One time for shits and giggles, I wrote a letter to "her" at the [italic]Weekly World News[/italic] asking if it was true that she was really a man, and they published it!

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by Anonymousreply 10January 17, 2023 4:40 AM

I started reading when Anne Lander made the historic, culture changing announcement that masturbation was not a sin.

She normalized something that the Churches had used to control people for MILLENNIA!

Easier than abortion.

Yep, Anne Landers.

But I stopped when Miss Manners made the pronouncement that it was perfectly fine to eat DRY, STEAMED asparagus with your fingers, and the Fraus of the nation conveniently forgot about the DRY, STEAMED part and started picking up sauced spears. It ruined more than one dinner party for me and since, have cut the spears into forkable lengths when I serve it, if at all.

by Anonymousreply 11January 17, 2023 4:48 AM

Miss Manners is mostly written by Judith Martin's two adult children, since their mother is aging into senility. it's not as funny as it used to be.

by Anonymousreply 12January 17, 2023 5:11 AM

I love that Ann and Abby's real names were Esther Pauline and Pauline Esther. Talk about creative.

by Anonymousreply 13January 17, 2023 5:28 AM

They were twins. Not unusual.

by Anonymousreply 14January 17, 2023 5:32 AM

Yes. I read Lady Philippa Perry's column every week in The Observer here in the UK.

She's the wife of artist Sir Grayson Perry.

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by Anonymousreply 15January 17, 2023 5:56 AM

What did Brits think of Auntie Claire Rayner when she was alive?

by Anonymousreply 16January 17, 2023 6:06 AM

I always enjoyed reading E. Jean Carroll.

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by Anonymousreply 17January 17, 2023 6:12 AM

R17 She’s a sick lady! 😷

by Anonymousreply 18January 17, 2023 6:16 AM

Irma Kurtz has been Cosmo UK's advice columnist off and on since the early '70s and also did a stint at the US magazine. As a gayling who was a voracious reader of women's mags, I didn't get why she referred to herself in the US version as an "agony aunt," but I thought she was funny and honest without being mean.

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by Anonymousreply 19January 17, 2023 6:31 AM

I always get a kick when it says the columnist is on vacation. Here's a column from 2009 or whatever. It's that hard to write an advice column that you can't prepare columns for when you're on vacation?

by Anonymousreply 20January 17, 2023 1:36 PM

Lol “my husband groped my friend on New Year’s, what do I do?”

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by Anonymousreply 21January 17, 2023 1:38 PM

Ivana Trump was an advice columnist for the Globe, America's Z-list supermarket tabloid.

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by Anonymousreply 22January 17, 2023 11:08 PM

Only Miss Manners (now with Judith Martin working with her family).

She is the only one who makes consistent sense.

Hax is horrid.

by Anonymousreply 23January 17, 2023 11:15 PM

Ask Beth!

by Anonymousreply 24January 17, 2023 11:19 PM

None of you bitches will cop to loving "Hints from Heloise"?

Plain white vinegar can do ANYTHING.

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by Anonymousreply 25January 17, 2023 11:25 PM

R5 I agreed with you about ask Amy as late as last evening when I stumbled on this thread. But today I read this submission and was quite amused. She may be a bore most of the time, but I felt she nailed this one almost as hard as her writer nailed his victims!

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by Anonymousreply 26January 17, 2023 11:32 PM

I enjoy reading Hax quite a bit. Reading a lot of advice columns makes me want to write into one and ask, Why are women so horrible to one another? Possessive mothers-in-law, narcissistic mothers or sisters, controlling and pathological brides who torture their attendants — it is astounding how women (granted, they are the majority of those seeking advice) are such awful people. And usually over the stupidest things with perceived slights and passive-aggressive behavior poisoning every relationship.

by Anonymousreply 27January 17, 2023 11:35 PM

The answer is always some variation of "Communicate better with them"

by Anonymousreply 28January 17, 2023 11:38 PM

Carolyn Hax is an irritating fraucunt with tedious, retard-tier advice delivered in a very dated ¡snarky! blather.

She should be made to face the wall.

by Anonymousreply 29January 17, 2023 11:39 PM

Read Social Qs in The Times, online Wednesday. Our brother, Philip Galanes, gives advice on dealing with relatives, couples relationships and whatever else people send in.

by Anonymousreply 30January 17, 2023 11:45 PM

Years ago, my friend received a Dear Abby letter cut from the newspaper in the mail with a note saying "guess who?". The letter writer was a man complaining that his wife wasnt interested in having sex any more and what should he do? It was from her father regarding her mom. At this point, the couple were over 70 years old. I don't remember the reply from Abby. Probably, "leave her alone". But for years afterwards, we referred to him as Guess Who. She has no idea why he needed to tell her about his "problem" except that he was excited that his letter was chosen for publication. And he was an all around perv with non existent boundaries with his kids.

by Anonymousreply 31January 18, 2023 12:04 AM

I cannot believe that the Queen of Agony Aunts hasn't been mentioned yet.

Marjorie Proops was surely a Datalounger.

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by Anonymousreply 32January 18, 2023 10:05 AM

I do think some of these letters are so specific that people who know the letter writer will know it's them.

by Anonymousreply 33January 18, 2023 12:51 PM

This thread is pointless without mentioning Dan Savage.

by Anonymousreply 34January 18, 2023 3:32 PM

E Jean was pretty good. My mom enjoyed that column, as well.

There was also Cary Tennis / Dear Cary from Salon.com. I enjoyed his column back when I read Salon regularly.

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by Anonymousreply 35January 18, 2023 3:48 PM

It's not really an advice column but Q&A columns are pretty silly since the advent of the internet. The print version of TV Guide (yes, there is still such a thing) has one of those columns where people ask Matt Rousch questions easily answered by a two second google search. I suspect "Lisa S" who wrote the question doesn't exist.

by Anonymousreply 36January 27, 2023 1:01 PM

I loved Margo Howard's column since I first discovered her on Slate as Dear Prudence (was she the original Prudy?). It's a shame that she and her cousin Jeanne don't get along. I liked them both.

I hated Annie's Mailbox. I found it very mean and conservative. I only just learned that the two hags that wrote it retired years ago and the "Dear Annie" blonde lady that pops up in my newsfeed is their successor. No wonder I don't like her.

Fun fact: Amy DIckerson of Ask Amy fame is the ex-wife of former Gayle and Them anchor John Dickerson.

by Anonymousreply 37January 27, 2023 1:18 PM

I stopped reading them when Miss Manners told clods that they could eat asparagus spears with their fingers. I started slicing asparagus into 2 inch forkable lengths, served in a bowl with a serving spoon because of her.

by Anonymousreply 38September 10, 2023 6:24 AM

Is OP not familiar with Dan Savage, king of DL advice for many years?

by Anonymousreply 39September 10, 2023 6:26 AM
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