Columns

Wedding Planning

Today’s Sound Off is about planning a wedding: Dear Heloise: My fiance and I want a small, intimate wedding in mid-October. Neither of us has been married before (I’m 28 and my fiance is 31), but we feel a large wedding is just not for us. We want an evening ceremony of no more than 70 people. My sister will be my bridesmaid, and we’ll have a sit-down dinner afterward at my church, which is 124 years old. It’s where my parents and grandparents were married and holds deep meaning for me. My future mother-in-law wants a huge affair of nearly 300 people with six bridesmaids, a ...

Slow Payment For Bookkeeping Is Costing Family Its Harmony

DEAR ABBY: I take care of my daughter-in-law’s taxes and have for the past 15 years. I have never charged her for it. When she brings me the paperwork, it is always a mess. I told her I would be her full-time bookkeeper and charge her $300 a month, but it’s like getting blood from a turnip. I have to beg her each month for my pay. My husband said I should stop doing it for her. What should I do? I feel that this is driving a wedge between us. She owns a small construction cleaning service and makes good money. — GOOD WITH FIGURES IN FLORIDA DEAR GOOD: Your daughter-in-law may ...

Perfect Pregnancy Plans, Ruined by a Pandemic

PHOENIX (AP) — It was the day after April Fool’s when I stared at a tiny window on a pregnancy test and watched a very clear plus sign quickly appear. I sprinted from my side of the house to my husband’s office (see: bathroom), banged on the door like a crazed person and jumped up and ...

Open Or Closed?

Shut that **** door! Do you want the whole insect world coming in the house? Do you remember your parents screaming that to you and your siblings? We must have heard it thousands of times between spring and fall. Summertime posed a problem for keeping doors closed. Without air conditioning, the front and back doors were equipped with screens to create a flow of air through the house. We had transoms over many of the inside doors, including the bedrooms, that also were designed to circulate air. I’m not sure they served that purpose as much as they were for eavesdropping on other ...

Words Intended To Comfort Only Trigger Man’s Grief

DEAR ABBY: My wife died unexpectedly two years ago, after 18 years of a happy marriage and two kids. While we are doing as well as can be expected, one thing seems to set my grief off. It’s when someone refers to my life as my “new normal.” I’m not sure I can put my finger on why this phrase bothers me so much, but if I had to guess, it’s because I suspect people are using it to hint that it’s time I moved on. Why is it that people who would be deeply offended if I attempted to tell them what to do with their life, seem to think it’s acceptable to imply that I have ...

Obesity Is a Contributing Factor in a Host of Medical Issues

DEAR DR. ROACH: We have been hearing for quite a while about the health risks of obesity, and these have become of even greater concern given the pandemic. The discussion usually involves connecting the higher risk to various medical problems obese people frequently have — for instance, high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. I have been obese all my life and generally not had those problems, so I always find myself asking if I have the same increased risks. I see my physician regularly and until age 60 had no medical problems. At 60, I developed high blood pressure that is ...