Breaking News

Uncategorized

Techy toilet troubles

Dear Readers: A recent column talked about someone being grossed out when entering a bathroom stall because the previous occupant failed to flush. I was pretty hard on that previous occupant, assuming they were at fault. Quite a few readers pointed out that this might have been a problem of technology and not inconsideration. Here are two of the letters that I really enjoyed reading: Dear Annie: In your May 18 column, “Dismayed in North Carolina” was confronted with an unflushed toilet when entering a stall. Yes, the previous user should have checked, but as one who travels and ...

Family still Hayes’ first priority

To the outside world, Jaxson Hayes is an athletically-blessed 6-foot-11 man-child. An uber prospect who is just getting started at 19 years old. The freshman of the year in the Big 12. A Top-10 pick in last week’s NBA Draft, and a soon-to-be multi-millionaire. To the family of Fort ...

The circular firing squad

Mo Udall, the legendary Democratic congressman from Arizona, was brutally candid about his party’s bad habit of succumbing to intramural recriminations that became the political equivalent of a civil war in the leper colony. “When Democrats organize a firing squad, they form a circle,” Udall wisely observed. Politics, let it be noted, is a matter of addition, not subtraction. Putting together a majority to pass legislation to aid widows and orphans or a majority to win elections requires winning converts to your side rather than hunting down and banishing heretics to the Outer ...

Feeling obligated to see grandfather

Dear Annie: My grandfather was violently abusive to his wife, and then his daughter (my mother), and then to me. He was also very racist — he punished me for having a black friend in grade school — and just generally cruel. Now, his health is not so good, and his old age has mellowed him out considerably. He can still have temper rages if provoked enough, but most of the time he is calm. The problem is that everyone in my family keeps urging me to spend more time with him “before he’s gone.” Everyone else is content with sweeping the way he treated us under the rug and ...

Time’s up for mandatory high heels

Just think about it: a clothing item that permanently disfigures a body part, encouraging nerve growths that set off shooting pain. Fashionwise, it telegraphs sexual availability. And amazingly, some employers demand that their female workers wear this cause of physical agony to the office. We speak, of course, about high heels. For years now, working women have been agitating against this extraordinary — if you think about it — indignity to their gender. There has been progress, but there have also been setbacks. In a recent attempt to stop Japanese employers from mandating high ...

Parking problems

Dear Annie: I hope this is not out of your area, but I have a parking-related question for you. We have a neighbor who always says, “Don’t park in front of my house.” This guy and his family are not very polite, and they will run outside and start arguments and create scenes if you try to park there. I avoid parking there at all costs so that I can avoid them and their hostility. However, when friends visit or relatives come by, they sometimes end up parking out front of their house — and these people become verbally abusive. When it snows, he always ask for my assistance with ...