ArcaMax

Dear Annie: I'm a 48-year-old gainfully employed man living in Denver with my wife of many years. Our marriage, while respectful and supportive, has evolved into more of a platonic partnership over time. We are navigating a difficult season as parents.

My daughter, who just turned 18 and attends college, is spending her summer in Seattle. ...Read more

DEAR ABBY: My parents divorced when I was in high school, and Dad kept the house I grew up in. I'm in college across town and have my own place, but I still visited Dad often. As a teenager, it used to be my job to cook the family dinner two nights a week. I loved it and continued to cook when I was visiting.

Dad now has a serious girlfriend ...Read more

Trust me. What I'm about to suggest is beneficial. Yes, it may fall into the category of auto-suggestion, but it's the healthy kind. So healthy, indeed, it may very well make you stronger and abler to bring your life in line with your deepest wishes. And isn't that what we all want? Now that we're agreed on that, let's move on to the good stuff....Read more

DEAR HARRIETTE: My boyfriend is deeply passionate about international humanitarian work. It's a huge part of who he is and, honestly, one of the reasons I admire and love him so much. Recently, he told me he's planning to move abroad to work in a conflict zone for an extended period. He sees it as an opportunity to make a real impact, and he ...Read more

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I'm the pastor of a medium-sized church (about 500 members), with five other ministers on staff, as well. This summer, while I was on vacation, a church member harshly criticized the staff for not noticing she'd been gone for eight Sundays. This young woman blasted us for this oversight in an extended rant on social media.

In...Read more

Dear Annie: Thank you for your strong and thoughtful letter about keeping relationship details private.

I have noticed there seems to be a kind of unspoken "girl code" that makes some women feel it's perfectly acceptable to ask personal questions about someone's sex life -- as if those boundaries don't apply among friends. I have always found...Read more

DEAR ABBY: My husband is going to be 70 next month. He is in good physical shape but has taken up smoking marijuana every day. He says he is addicted. I have told him how much I hate that he uses dope. He quits for a while and then goes back to it.

We have been married almost 50 years. I would be disappointed filing for divorce, but I am ...Read more

DEAR HARRIETTE: I was skinny for most of my life -- uncomfortably so. Then I had my son, and I gained a lot of weight. It has been more than 20 years, and I have yet to get back to a slim size. To be honest, I am overweight. I feel like I hated how I looked when I was younger because I was too small, and now I'm shy about how I look because I'm ...Read more

DEAR MISS MANNERS: When I am picking up a prescription, the druggist usually asks for my birthdate, sometimes in front of other people.

Must I say the year? I bristle at this. Aren't ladies allowed to hide their ages? Isn't the name, date and month enough?

GENTLE READER: Oh, please -- don't even think that way.

Yes, the idea has long been ...Read more

Dear Annie: I am a 72-year-old widow, and most days, I feel like I'm simply fading into the background of life. I lost my husband in 2018, and in 2023, I lost my oldest son. The grief has taken a toll, and so has my health. I now wear a colostomy pouch, and because of that, I rarely leave the house. I have no transportation of my own and rely ...Read more

DEAR ABBY: I was diagnosed with colon cancer five years ago. After two surgeries and three hospital stays, I recovered. The experience made me realize at 62 that it was time to downsize. I moved my husband and myself into a smaller, one-story home in a lovely retirement community.

I have now been diagnosed with incurable metastatic cancer. I'm ...Read more

Dear Annie: I wanted to follow up on a letter you published on June 21, 2025, about my complicated relationship with my sister-in-law, who I started to develop romantic feelings for after the death of my wife (her sister).

Since your response, I had a long and emotional conversation with her. Things had been awkward between us ever since we ...Read more

I used to use the website, the Wayback Machine, to find incriminating teenage poetry on long-lost LiveJournal accounts written by people who are now normal accountants and thought their old emo phase wasn't going to haunt them. Yesterday, I used the Wayback Machine to see a government website delete parts of the Constitution.

The chaos is real,...Read more

Dear Annie: I recently moved into a small building with only eight apartments. Just three days after moving in, I was in a serious car accident that left me hospitalized for two weeks. I'm now back home recovering and on medical leave from work.

Unfortunately, instead of a quiet, supportive environment, I've been met with hostility. If I make...Read more