Some Dear Abby Letters As We Mark Her Passing

As you surely heard on the news, Pauline Phillips, better known as the original Dear Abby, died Wednesday at the age of 94. Through the magic of making stuff up, we found some letters she answered that we run here to celebrate her life:

Dear Abby:
I always look around for the best advice available whenever I have a problem. But my go-to gal for the best advice, I'll call her "Abby" passed away Wednesday.  There are so many advice columnists everywhere these days, and they offer conflicting advice.  Where do I turn to to guide my life?
--Bereft in Burlington.
Dear Bereft:
You are not the center of the universe. I knew your Abby. If you boiled down her advice it was all about using looking at the good examples around you and using common sense.


Dear Abby:
Things are so confusing nowadays. It seems like there are so many sharp opinions and anger. Everybody is always yelling at each other and being nasty   When I was a kid, it seemed like things were calmer and it was easier to figure out what was really going on.   Where do I go now?
--Confused in Colchester.
Dear Confused: Wake up and smell the coffee. I've always said to treat others with respect. In one column I wrote "The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good." Remember that. 

Dear Abby:
Voices are so loud around me. On the TV, on the Internet, on the radio, everybody is always saying they are right, and talk, talk, talk as if that will make everybody agree with their point of view. It's boring and obnoxious, and it's getting worse.   None of these people make any sense, and I can't understand what they're trying to say because they're foaming at the mouth so much. How do I sort all this out, and how can I make my voice rise above the din?
--Deaf in Duxbury.
Dear Deaf: Again, I have to go back to one of my past columns in which I said, "The less you talk, the more you're listened to."

Dear Abby:
Everybody wants to be famous. More and more, people are doing all kinds of dumb things so they can get Web hits and attention in the blogosphere. I guess everybody is supposed to be famous. But what if I never attain fame? Does that make me a bad person with a bad life?
--Unknown in Underhill.
Dear Unknown: I'll repeat something else I said in a past column: "If you want a place in the sun, you've got to put up with a few blisters."

Dear Abby:
My neighbors' children are lazy.  They're teenagers, and it looks like they've never worked a day in their lives. I see their parents struggling to shovel snow, and they have health problems. The kids just hang out and snicker, and their parents don't ask them to help. So the kids do nothing. I worry they'll just drift through life. What's going on, and how can the parents give their kids a little ambition?
---Working in Worcester.
Dear Working: I've always said, "If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders."
















Mostly it was to the point: Look kid,wake up and smell the coffee. You are not the center of the universe,no matter what your parents say.  You better suck it up and just keep on keeping on.