Those Two Are Over The Line
Dear Ann Landers: A while ago, you reprinted a letter about an incestuous couple. I’m writing to object to the wanton attack you made on that brother and sister. He was a 60-ish divorced man, and she was a widow in her late 50s. They had sex twice a week. You said they were sick. I think your attitude is overly judgmental and narrow-minded.
If a pair of unmarried senior citizens, even a brother and sister, can find sexual satisfaction in a monogamous relationship, I say more power to them! Since the woman is past child-bearing age, their genetic background is totally irrelevant.
As for your charge that they’re denying themselves the “opportunity to have normal relationships,” both parties have been married before and are fully cognizant of what they’re supposedly missing. If the writer had said, “When we were children, we were next-door neighbors,” I’ll bet you, too, would have said, “Congratulations, and more power to you.” - A Friend of Humanity in Reisterstown, Md.
Dear Friend of Humanity: These two are a bit more than “next-door neighbors.” They are brother and sister, and I am not about to tell them, “More power to you.” If it is the need to release sexual energy we’re talking about, a far better alternative is solitary sex. I recommend it.
Dear Ann Landers: I am a 14-year-old girl, and I have noticed something about the letters you print. So many people who write seem to think skinny people have it easy. What they don’t know is that being skinny is not all that wonderful.
I have been asked how much I weigh by complete strangers. This is very rude and hurtful. I have never heard of anyone going up to a fat person and asking, “How much do you weigh?” I get comments from relatives about how I need to put on some weight. Ann, for a couple of years now, I have been trying to add pounds to my 5-foot-7-inch, 95-pound body, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t gain an ounce.
The overweight girls in our school get asked out a lot. So far, no guy has asked me anywhere. So, for those people who think being skinny is terrific, please let them know they are wrong. Tell them that it’s a lot easier to take off weight than to put it on. - A Girl in Santa Rosa
Dear Santa Rosa: More people in America are overweight than underweight. Thank you for being an eloquent spokesperson for the silent minority.
Dear Ann Landers: I have enjoyed reading your columns on ridiculous lawsuits, and I would like to add another example to your fine collection that I read in the Rockford, Ill., Register Star. The sad thing about this example is that the courts are tied up wasting time on nonsense and the taxpayers have to foot the bill. - R.E.B. in Cherry Valley, Ill.
Dear R.E.B.: Thanks for sending the article. Here it is:
“A man is suing Michigan for $1 million because he says he caught a cold in the drafty Capitol rotunda in Lansing. Chris Morris filed the suit, saying he caught ‘a cold and a hard cough’ while visiting an art exhibit in February.
“Chris DeWitt, spokesman for Attorney General Frank Kelley, said the whole thing is ‘ridiculous,’ but ‘one of our assistants will have to spend time on this lawsuit, so it does end up costing taxpayers money.’ A clerk at the Ingham County Courthouse said the $90 fee for filing a suit was waived because Morris is broke.
“John Truscott, spokesman for Gov. John Engler, said, ‘The irony is we’ve heard for years the Capitol is full of hot air. I don’t know where the cold air is coming from.”’