Dear Abby: I married my husband five years ago. He has three younger sisters. During the year we receive about 20 pictures of them, and another 20 during the holidays. We also receive a similar amount from my husband’s parents. Isn’t this excessive? When they visit us, they are upset that we haven’t displayed all or most of these pictures. Honestly, if we did, we would run out of wall space.
Dear Abby: I have wanted to write you for years, but my ex-husband thought it was “ridiculous.” We were married 29 years and rarely argued, which led me to believe we had a great marriage. Then, 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had a mastectomy and was on chemotherapy for a year.
Dear Doctors: I know I’m less depressed when I get to be in daylight. Is there any science behind that? Dear Reader: Yes.
“Paradais,” by Fernanda Melchor (New Directions) The fantasies that distort reality slither through Paradais, the gated community that sets Fernanda Melchor’s garden of Eden and gives her latest novel its name. Macabre characters drive the plot and slithering syntax the prose, guiding Melchor’s tale into the shadows of a society locked by chains.
Dear Abby: My boyfriend and I have gotten engaged and we are being married in a year or so. Everything about him is wonderful, and I’m excited to share my life with him – except for one worry. I have been an animal lover my entire life. After living with him this past year with my two cats, I have slowly come to the realization that he absolutely loathes the idea of pets.
Two years in and we're still struggling. • The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has taken another step toward normalcy as children and adults in schools recently could opt to ditch the face mask. While some families welcomed the change, others grew more anxious. • But for some, to feel overwhelmed is like admitting defeat. In turn, many people brush off or ignore signs that something may feel off. • Bottom line, that simply does not work, said Bill Pearson, a program manager for Rochester Regional Health's Community Youth Behavioral Program, a program that brings therapy and other services to children at their schools throughout the region, giving kids access to mental health care without missing full days of class. • "The best thing you can do is to acknowledge when you are struggling," he said. "Talk about it." •Then you can start working toward how to improve the circumstances. • These past two years have impacted us all with prolonged stress and uncertainty.
We have been enjoying rare beef, as we call it, since we started butchering our own beef. We slice the tenderest steaks very thin and put salt and pepper on both sides then swirl it in hot oil once and flip it over and swirl one again and it’s done. It is delicious and our family loves it.
Dear Abby: I’m concerned for my sister and her three young daughters. She has been married to “Rick” for 10 years. After she recently discovered he has inappropriate feelings toward children, she kicked him out of their home.
Clothes make the man. • Icing completes the cake. • Dressing enhances the salad. • In other words, the latter is better because of the former. • As for salads, during my 1970s childhood, the usual choices at San Antonio steak houses were French, Italian and Thousand Island. • The waitress would leave the sturdy plastic dressing dispensers on the table. We’d pass the containers and use a thumb to pull back a lever on the screw lid to expose a pouring spout. • Salmonella and public food safety obviously were less pressing in those days. (One more example of the “good ol’ days” being less than recalled.) • Surveys in recent years show that ranch dressing has supplanted those varieties as the No. 1 choice for American consumers. Credit Nebraska-native Steve Henson (1918–2007), who operated a California guest ranch called Hidden Valley Ranch, for the popular buttermilk-and-mayonnaise blend seasoned with herbs. • Henson’s customers loved the dressing served with homestyle meals and asked for the recipe. That led Henson to selling a dry package blend to mix at home.
At first glance, a handful of lentils may look like a pile of small rocks used for a craft project. They are ordinary, brown and a bit forgettable.