Thursday, March 1, 2012

AI: Advice Illustrated

Letter 1 is from a woman whose fiancé thinks she stinks. She has good hygience. Should she call off the wedding?
First step (it's hard): find a person you trust to tell you if you stink. You don't smell yourself. Maybe you stink.Maybe you have a medical problem (there's  possible person you trust). Maybe he's ultra sensitive (there are super smellers... but apparently you're the only one, so I doubt this is the case). Maybe he's just a dick. What does the Pruditron say?
She says to see a doctor, and points out that he must like her if he's put up with the stench for so long.

Video is from a  late-middle-aged woman whose older husband flirts with the young waitress. He's making a fool of himself. Duh. Service people flirt. It's good for the atmosphere and tips. And a bit of fun for him. Prudie thinks she's over reacting, bizarre, and a little nuts. Prudie suggests professional help.

Letter 2 is hard to summarize, but is quite interesting. He it is in extenso (image has nothing to do with it, but I ran across it while searching and it begs to be published):
My wife's younger sister recently got a job with a housecleaning company that pays decent wages and offers benefits. This is the first stable job she's had in almost two years due to a severe substance abuse problem. While she was in trouble, we took in her young son, who was in a bad situation. We love him dearly and practically consider him our child, and our daughter considers him a brother. My nephew now spends one to two days a week with his mother. Because of concerns about her relapsing, unbeknownst to her we closely monitor her social networking sites—she’s never shy about broadcasting her activities. She recently started a blog on which she has been posting derogatory comments about her clients and photos of their homes. Now she is adding personal information, such as their addresses and alarm codes. My wife is sure that if we tell her to quit the blog, she'll just shut us out. If we contact her employer anonymously, she’ll probably be fired and potentially slip back into drugs and alcohol. What do we do?

My advice? Time to think about the kid. She is clean (maybe... but this is kind of nuts), she is behaving totally irresponsibly, if not illegally, and will lose her job. I would seek custody of the kid, if that's possible, and let her ruin her life if she wants. How crazy is it to start a blog just to bitch about (and endanger) her clients? What does Prudentia say?
Emily says the SIL sounds like O'Brien on DA. I guess both are kind of nuts, with the soap thing, but I don't really see the connection. SIL's more like Thomas, if anyone. Anyway, Prudence agrees to see a lawyer about gaining custody.

Letter 3 is from a mom who is living in a sitcom or something. She knows that some kids (but not who exactly) had sex while staying overnight in her house. Whom should she blab to? Her husband? Her child who invited the sluts? Their theater director? The HS principal? The mayor? The NY Post? Ban Ki-Moon?
I say: Shut up about it. Kids have sex. Surprise! These used protection at least. It was uncool for them to frolic like that, but given the circumstances (see the letter), hardly unexpected. What does the Lesser Sage say?
Prudie says to keep this in the family circle and to use it as an opening to talk about safer sex with their son. Sounds good.

Letter 4 is from a person who has been helping a friend apply for grad school. But friend is hopeless and will never get in, and if he does, will fail. Among other problems, he can't write. LW is tired of working on this hopeless project. How to get out of it?
Prudie says to tell him the truth, and suggest he has a learning disability (because he seems bright but can't write). I have no objection.

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