ArcaMax

DEAR HARRIETTE: I want to go to trade school, but my parents don't approve. They want me to enroll full-time at a traditional four-year college, but that's not what I want to do. My parents worry that I'll limit my future or miss out on opportunities if I don't follow the path they envision. I know they want what's best for me, but I feel ...Read more

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I think the reason that people think using "ma'am" or "sir" is offensive stems from the idea that you have to assume someone's gender identity in order to use them.

There are many people whose appearance doesn't match their identity. Assuming one knows that information based on looks, or even voice, can cause distress for ...Read more

Dear Annie: I've been happily married for more than 40 years. The one shadow on that happiness has been my relationship with my husband's family, especially my mother-in-law. From the beginning, she has never seemed to like me. I honestly do not know why. Over the years, she has been dismissive and unkind, and I have usually stayed quiet to ...Read more

DEAR ABBY: I have been in a relationship for seven years. My significant other, "Gabe," and I bought a home together. We are also raising three of his grandsons. I pay half of the mortgage, utilities, food, maintenance and personal necessities. We both pay for our own insurance, car loans and gas.

Abby, there are four of them and one of me. ...Read more

DEAR HARRIETTE: I live in a nice apartment building in Los Angeles, and it costs a lot of money to live here. Since I pay such a premium, you would think that my neighbors would all be respectful. However, my upstairs neighbor plays music so loud all the time, I can still hear his music at 2 a.m. I've asked him to turn down the music many times,...Read more

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I am getting married in a traditional church ceremony. My father, who will be giving me away, has refused to wear a tuxedo on the grounds that it is a "monkey suit," even though all of the other men in the wedding party will be wearing one.

I gave in, because I want him to be happy and comfortable. Now he says he will not ...Read more

Dear Annie: My best friend and I have been close since college. He is the person who helped me move into my first apartment, who showed up with coffee during finals, who still remembers the name of my childhood dog. That is why it hurts so much to watch him repeat the same pattern that already cost him almost everything.

Years ago, his ...Read more

DEAR ABBY: My best friend, "Brooke," started dating a man, "Angus," last year. From the start, he made a poor impression. He met Brooke while he was dating another woman but didn't tell Brooke about her. Brooke continued hanging out with him only after he broke up with his girlfriend.

The past few months have been nothing short of awful. I see ...Read more

The city invited me to ride on its inaugural hot-air balloon flight. We headed to the local high school fields at a chilly dawn, and the brand new balloon slowly woke as air and heat gave it shape. The burners thundered, and the basket rocked beneath our feet. Then the ground loosened its hold. Gravity softened. The familiar sense of weight, not...Read more

Dear Annie: I got divorced after 27 years of marriage. I didn't leave because I stopped loving my husband -- I left because I was lonely inside my own home. We stopped talking, stopped laughing, stopped noticing each other. I spent years saying, "It's fine" until one day I realized I didn't want my life to be fine. I wanted it to be real.

My ...Read more

DEAR ABBY: It seems that everywhere I go, people expect tips. Yesterday, I pulled up to the drive-through at a cookie store, and before I paid or was handed my cookies, the clerk asked, "Would you like to leave a tip?" My niece recently told me that after she left a tip at a restaurant, the server followed her outside and asked if she hadn't ...Read more

DEAR HARRIETTE: My son told me that he's in need of a laptop, as his old one broke down on him. I asked what was keeping him from getting a new one, and he shared that he didn't want to overspend without saving up a bit longer. A couple of weeks went by, and I decided to give him more than half of the cost of the computer he wanted. I told him ...Read more

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I got married recently. It is a second marriage for both of us, but our first weddings were two decades ago, and we wanted to have a special event that really felt like a wedding.

We paid for the whole thing ourselves. It was simple and relatively small, but it was definitely and unambiguously a wedding: We sent paper ...Read more

Dear Annie: I see that you often answer questions pertaining to families trapped in addiction. I grew up in that special hell with all of the complex trauma issues that go along with that lifestyle.

I am a card-carrying member of Alcoholics Anonymous and Adult Children of Alcoholics. I have found ACA the most helpful. You never mention it, so I...Read more

DEAR ABBY: A few years back, my brother gave me a substantial amount of cryptocurrency. A couple of years after that, he did something that hurt me and my husband deeply and destroyed any trust I had in him. As a result, I have greatly reduced contact with him as well as my entire family.

When I explained how what he did made me feel and how it...Read more