Comments on: Agony Aunts of Old and ‘Never Kiss a Man in a Canoe’ by Tanith Carey

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:45:29 +0000

Apart from My Guy's Laura, I remember Clare Rayner and Miriam Stoppard. Oh, and Tracy Cox. @Magdalen: @Lynn Spencer: @Trish: @Mary Beth: I've never hear of Ann Landers and Dear Abby! I'm off to check Wikipedia. @heidenkind: I felt sorry for the poor girl with a bad temper who was being packed off to an asylum. Thanks for the comments!

By: heidenkind

heidenkind — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:53:36 +0000

I didn’t really read advice columns on a regular basis. Those advice snippets are pretty harsh, though! Geez, the girl just wants some ideas on what to do with extra ribbon, you don’t need to bite her head off!

By: Mary Beth

Mary Beth — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:11:45 +0000

I never really thought about it until your post, but I read a lot of advice columns! Dear Abby was in the paper we received while I was growing up; I read it then, and I still read it now with her daughter as the advice maven. I like Dear Prudence, which I read on Slate.com. My Sunday paper runs Dear Miss Manners. I’m always amused how she sticks it to some readers oh-so-pointedly, yet still politely. The paper also runs Carolyn Hax, whom I also read and like.

I’m not sure what it says about me that I read so much advice! I don’t feel aimless. . . .

As far as the advice you included in the extracts–what condescending responses! I laughed out loud at the phrase “every daughter of Eve.”

By: Trish

Trish — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:00:26 +0000

I grew up with Dear Abby and Ann Landers, too. I don’t remember the letter about the naked lady in the football helmet, but it’s a good one! The Dear Abby pen name is carried on by her daughter and there was a ‘Best of..’ book published in the 1980s. Ann Landers’ daughter wrote a memoir, allegedly digging the dirt on the sibling rivalry and eventual falling out. I’ve ordered ‘Never Kiss a Man in a Canoe’ and am looking forward to reading it.

By: Lynn Spencer

Lynn Spencer — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:24:49 +0000

I definitely have a thing for reading advice columns. I used to read Ann Landers/Dear Abby in our local paper growing up. I also really like reading Carolyn Hax. They have very different voices, but both are helpful.

Ann Landers/Dear Abby always seemed commonsensical, but basically warm and good-humored to me. Carolyn Hax tends to be a bit more blunt, but some of the letters she prints seems to come from folks who need a bit of straight talk.

By: Magdalen

Magdalen — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:16:01 +0000

We had Ann Landers and Dear Abby, famously twin sisters who had a falling out at some point and couldn’t seem to fix their own relationship issues. Nonetheless, their advice was pretty good, if never relevant to my life.

What I remember best was the folksy humor. Someone wrote to Ann Landers with the following story: he was a meter reader and as such he had access to people’s houses (this was 45 years ago; times have changed). He went into one house and was heading down to the basement when he realized that the “lady of the house” was standing in front her clothes washer & dryer, stark naked except for an American football helmet. All he could think to say was, “I hope your team wins.” I still love that image.