Just because she is in a relationship does not mean she is omniscient. Does she actually know that F1's acerbic manner has scared off potential mates? Or is she projecting her own experience?

I am in my thirties and single (and Jewish), and if I actually asked my friends for advice on the issue, I know I'd get a ton of conflicting - and wrong - advice. So I don't ask.

I know why I am still single - because "dating" appears to be as fun as interviewing for jobs.

An hour-long commute will drive anyone batty. There must be places to live that are closer to your work. All the driving-related psychological issues aside, why spend 2 hours a day in a car if you don't have to? As much of a hassle as moving is, it's a one-time hassle - not an ongoing stressor like the one you've got now.

LW, you have a newborn. This is NOT the time to go to law school or become an anti-corporate activist. Your son needs you to be his mother. He will only be a baby for a short time; you need to be there for him.

So for now, stop watching the news. Stop reading the newspapers. If it makes you feel better, boycott giant corporations as much as you can - get your groceries at farmers' markets, that sort of thing - but mostly, get lots of rest and raise your baby. You can always go to law school when he's older.

I love this idea. I have cured my case of depression with regular exercise and a healthy diet. I used to be near-suicidal at times. It was bad. I no longer get that way. When I stop exercising on a regular basis, though, it comes back.

Don't go for some woo-woo "credential" - get a real degree in psychology or whatever it is that one needs to be a real psychotherapist, and a real degree in nutrition and kinesiology. This way you can help more people and be taken more seriously by other practitioners. Write a book; open a clinic, and then a chain of clinics. Teach your approach to others. This is a message that desperately needs to be heard.

Good luck to you; I wish you all the success in the world.

I never had this at work, but I had a relationship like that. I am a relatively fast-moving person; my (now ex-)SO is a very slow-moving person (not slow-thinking or stupid - just slow-moving.) Getting out of the house to go somewhere took ages and ages and ages. And then we had to go back to pick up a forgotten item or two. And then we had to do that again. After about an hour or so of pointless back-and-forth dithering, I was ready to scream.

I suggest you find another workplace. There are fast-paced, stressful, exciting workplaces out there. And while you look for that new job, learn to meditate. Or find an activity you can do entirely in your head that engages you enough to keep you seated. Personally, I used to compose fugues while sitting in boring meetings - doing so entirely in one's head is a fairly serious mental challenge, and doing so while keeping up with what's going on in the meeting is an even more serious mental challenge. Find an activity on that order of difficulty (acrostics? light verse? doing logarithms in your head?) and you'll be fine.

There may have been a point at which the whole fight could have been prevented - but we don't know whether the LW was aware of passing that point, or made any conscious choice to get into a physical confrontation. But, as a former bullying victim who did not have the benefit of martial arts training at the time, I can tell you, Cary - turning your back on a violent bully only results in being beaten up further. Refusing to engage in a violent confrontation does not work if the bully in question just keeps pounding on you.

LW, you did the right thing, and Matt will now think twice about beating up his next victim. From your letter, I don't think you did anything excessive. This is what martial arts are for - defending yourself from violent attack.

A lot of my friends write, so here is what I do. I just say "I'm really not good at detailed literary analysis - I'm just a reader, not a writer - but I liked it." When they press you for details, demur. I'm still friends with all my writer friends. Even the ones whose prose ... ahh ... needs work.

1. Take a tbsp. of baking soda, dissolve in one cup of water. Pour on wet hair, work through hair, rinse out.

2. Take a tbsp. of vinegar, dissolve in one cup of water. Pour on hair, work through hair, rinse out.

Google "no-poo" for further info.

Apparently, government cannot be trusted to handle things like health care - that would be too Socialist and just wrong. But when it comes to snooping into citizens' private lives to enforce some crazy "moral" standard, sure - bring on the jackbooted government thugs! Bleh.

That's the gay marriage debate, too, and the abortion debate - the American public does not want a "nanny state" that actually does anything useful for the people, it wants a dictatorship that ruthlessly suppresses any sign of dissent or difference of opinion. We almost got such a dictatorship with George W.