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Dear Jane, I am the mother of a bright, beautiful, friendly 15-year-old who I love very much. But in recent years, a pit of jealousy has started growing over just how talented and popular my daughter has become. I have spent much of my life feeling little more than average. I’m not ugly – but I’m not pretty. I’m not dumb – but I’m not what you would consider intelligent. I have some good friends – but popular is never a word someone would use to describe me. My daughter, on the other hand, is spectacular. She has an enormous...

Dear Amy: This week, I discovered that my intelligent, hard-working, responsible 24-year-old daughter (who lives with me) is a gun owner! And it’s not a normal gun, either — it is a 40-caliber semi-automatic, and she has hollow-point bullets to go with it. Amy, this is the kind of weapon a criminal would possess! She says it is for emergencies. There have only been two home invasions in our neighborhood in the last 11 years. I’ve given her three choices: She can either give her weapon to me, sell it or move out in three weeks. I love my daughter...

Dear BarryMore tips from America’s premier relationship expert Dear Barry:I try to get along with the people in my neighborhood, but sometimes it can be difficult. Take for example my neighbor “Mahmoud.” Last weekend while I was seeding my lawn, he drove back and forth slowly in front of my house “flipping the bird” from his minivan, which is painted with pictures of bloody corpses and mushroom clouds and “welcome 12th Imam.”  Normally I wouldn’t have given it a second thought (I get “fingered” by a lot of the neighbors), but lately I’ve noticed he has been working on some...

Advice for the LovelornDear Barry:I’ve been married to the same wonderful man -- Let’s call him “Jeremiah” -- for 20 years. He’s a great provider and we live in a beautiful home. He dotes on me and treats me like a queen; even after twenty years he still brings me little gifts and opens doors for me. Best yet, our sex life is fantastic!  Jeremiah enjoys spicing things up with role-play, such as “Adolf and Eva,” and we host weekly swinger get-togethers for like-minded couples. I know it probably must sound kind of kinky, but trust me - it...

[...]Days after the 1976 presidential election, Lederer dashed off a note dispensing -- what else? -- advice to the newly elected president, "Jimmy," as she addressed him, about who should be his secretary of state. "Cy Vance ... He is head and shoulders above anyone else whose name has been mentioned."[...]"I'm nervous about the upcoming election," Lederer wrote to her sister on the eve of the 2000 election. "I can't bear the thought of looking at George Bush's smirk for the next four years--maybe eight. ... The next president will make three, maybe four appointments and I can see Roe...

Sunday june 23 Oakland Tribune Columnist Ann Landers dies at 83 She advised millions in print since 1955 By New York Times: Margalit Fox Sunday, June 23, 2002 - Eppie Lederer, who as the syndicated columnist Ann Landers was widely considered responsible for bringing the advice column into the modern era, died Saturday at her home in Chicago. She was 83. Although those problems would progress from Saturday-night dating woes to late-20th-century ills like domestic violence and crack, Lederer was sometimes astonished to discover the everyday things that could inflame the passions of her readers. She once threw her column...

Relax, parents. Nude slumber parties full of 15-year-old girls are not "all the rage these days," as seen in the Ann Landers column of May 16. Nor were they when the letter first appeared in print in 1995. Landers is the latest of several prominent advisers to receive -- and answer -- the letter from a "Baffled Mom in Burlingame," troubled that her daughter wanted to attend one of the parties. Dear Abby received a very similar letter three weeks ago and didn't bite. "I think it's a hoot. I dismissed it as a young boy's prepubescent fantasy," said Jeanne...