The World According to Hallmark

Dear Short Answers: A very good friend invited me to a fancy dinner party at her home for Valentine’s Day. I thought it was a wonderful idea since my husband died this past year and I knew that Valentine’s Day was going to be hard for me. A few days before the dinner, my friend [...]

Modern Love Rituals

Dear Short Answers: Do I have to buy a present and go out to dinner for Valentine’s Day? I hate having the calendar tell me when I’m supposed express affection.  I feel like a lemming – with roses in my teeth. Reluctant Sweetheart Dear RS: We hear you.  And the same goes for Mother’s Day [...]

Take Down that Tree, Ms. Mark, Take Down that Tree!

Dear Short Answers: When should I take down my Christmas tree? Polly Mark Dear PM: NOW! Like Unlike

Fraud, Plain and Simple

Dear Short Answers: For Christmas, I gave my niece a new computer because she is going off to college next year and her mother told me that she desperately needed one. I just found out that she returned the computer for cash and bought clothes instead. I never would have spent that much money on [...]

Make it Stop!

Dear Short Answers: How can I nicely get someone to stop giving me a “collectible item” every year without fail. I had one of these items and my husband told her, a business acquaintance of his, that I collected them and she has sent them for years after. I am embarrassed and want my closet [...]

Ho Ho Ho

Dear Short Answers: Why do I feel this enormous relief that the holidays are over? I feel like a tremendous weight has been lifted? Am I the only one who feels this way? So Relieved Dear Relieved: We hear you.  You feel FREE from the obligation to be social, generous, cheerful, and the anxiety of [...]

We Send Love

Dear Short Answers: It’s about to be a new year but I don’t think I will ever get over the things that happened to me this year. Why do people keep telling me to move on? So Sad Dear SS: We don’t know what happened to you this year but we believe that for the [...]

Storm Damage

Dear Short Answers: If you know someone whose home was destroyed in a natural disaster like Sandy, what is the right thing to buy them for Christmas? Cash or a gift card seems too impersonal because these are close friends. And they are staying with relatives so housewares like a blender or coffee maker seems [...]

When a Date Is Not a Date

Dear Short Answers: My boss asked me to have a drink with him next week to celebrate the holidays. I said “yes” because I thought it was a group affair. I just found out that it is just me and that he probably thinks it’s more like a date. I am totally not interested in [...]

Nothing Tastes as Good as Thin Feels

Dear Short Answers: Now that the holidays are here, I am starting to panic about all the food that is going to be EVERYWHERE. I lost 50 pounds last year and I am desperate to keep it off. I’m tempted to decline every holiday invitation that I get but that will just make me more [...]

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