Recent Columns

Dear Abby: Would you please remind your many readers that the greatest gift we can give to America’s fallen is the gift of remembrance? The legacy of those who have died for our freedom – from the Revolutionary War to the present – is something that strengthens and unites Americans. I would like every child to say, “I know why I am free, and I know who died for my freedom.”

Dear Abby: My sister “Ruth” and I spent most holidays dining out together after our families grew up and left home. Ruth died last year and her daughter “Lara” began inviting me for holidays “so I wouldn’t be alone.” I have tried to decline, but she persists. She insists that I should be with her instead of with friends, although her plans are always tentative and often change at the last minute.

Dear Abby: From time to time I have read letters in your column about Peeping Toms. You might find our experience interesting.

Another week, another series of demonstrations against cuts to state spending.

Dear Abby: I’m a 42-year-old woman who has been living with my boyfriend, “Matt.” He has asked me to marry him, and I said yes. The problem is, Matt is still married.

An often tense and confrontational meeting over gaming expansion last week ended with Gov. Pat Quinn not explicitly saying “no” to adding slot machines at horse racing tracks. That might be the beginning of a reversal for Quinn, who has adamantly opposed allowing tracks to have more gambling options.

Dear Abby: I agreed to be maid of honor at my best friend’s wedding. I am now planning her bridal shower and just received the guest list from her mother and the groom’s mother, “Alicia.”

One reader commented last year that this editor seemed to have “a lot of stories” from his past that conveniently supported the observations of this column.

When I entered Sterling High School as a freshman in 1996, the twin cities were coping with a change that many did not like.

Dear Abby: I am a divorced man with a live-in girlfriend I’ll call Donna. Her two boys also live with us. Donna’s older son will graduate from high school this year, and she has planned a party that her mother and other family members will attend from out of state.