I had siblings that did things to me that I didn't want them to. That's kind of what siblings do. Did you not get the memo?

Do we really have to be this spineless?

It's not ridiculous to feel frustrated when you've got a master's and you're working reception. I was a doorman with similar credentials for over a year, then moved into facilities (ugh) before finally getting my first post-grad job that demanded skills.

But you do need a THWAP in one respect: did you not know what kind of jobs would be available to you when you moved where you did? This sounds to me like an inevitable consequence of being careless about your career. If you want to stay put, resign yourself to not using your entire degree. If you want more than anything to use that degree, start making plans to move. Simple, eh?

There is potentially a third option. Was your "dream job" something that just came open, or did you pursue this place because it's where you wanted to work? See, real dream jobs don't generally result from advertised openings--they result from good candidates contacting companies that would be a good match, and explaining why an opening needs to be created. If the company that ultimately rejected you is really your ideal, regroup and try again in a few months. If it just happened to need someone at the time you were looking, surely there's another place just as good that you can try right now.

...how Garry Owen thinks he's prescient for having encouraged the Democrats to get on top of an issue that virtually no one is talking about, let alone using as the basis for their votes.

There's more than a hint of Br'er Rabbit in this particular brand of idiocy.

I really enjoyed this little memoir, and I've enjoyed most of the letters in response. But why do there always have to be a few people here who insist on pissing on the rest of our cornflakes?

Some of us are indeed that unlucky in love without being broken in some small, profound way that we need to heal through therapy. Not everyone has the same opportunities to meet potential partners, or the social skills to successfully woo (or charisma to be wooed), or much time or energy to put into dating after we've had a long history of infrequent and unsatisfying matches.

That's my story, anyway. If some of you want to believe that I'm just too fucked up to commit to someone, that's fine--I'll just go on secretly believing that anyone who can fall in love quickly and commit without undue stress is probably shallow enough to do so with any random stranger plucked out of the phone book.

That's not a compliment. But there are only two significant problems with this specific strip.

*There are exactly two lines of text and there's still an error in verb agreement. You have to try to fuck up something that simple. Moreover, this isn't exactly a major plot development where the action speaks for itself, so why isn't the narration continued over all four panels?

*There's still no obvious progression between the panels; it takes some effort to realize that she's wearing the wig in #3 (why isn't she shown paying for it or walking out of the store? Why isn't the wig she's wearing visible in the window?), and the hotel has nothing to do with anything.

This is yet an improvement because it's not packed full of wretched, badly lettered text like every earlier installment. I'd be interested in seeing what Bachtell could do with a new collaborator, because Schlesinger is clearly the weak link.

Depending on what you do, two-year stints might not be at all bad. I've held six jobs since I finished grad school in 2001 and each of them represented a definite step forward in my career (beginning with lowly office jobs and working my way first into my area of interest, then into my chosen role, then into positions with more responsibilities and higher salary).

If you aren't getting a tangible benefit from every move, think long and hard about making the decision to leave your current job, weighing the positives and negatives. Leaving for a more exciting job, a more prestigious company, or a much higher salary is great. Leaving just to rid yourself of your tiresome coworkers is not, because they don't get any less tiresome at the company down the block. Seniority is not vitally important, but it's valuable, and you have to be careful not to throw it away needlessly.

Also, make a point of learning from experience: ask detailed questions when you interview at new places. Not only is it a good tactic for impressing hiring managers (I asked for what I thought was an absurdly high starting salary at my current job, but I'd so wowed them that they gave it to me without blinking), but it gives you some idea of whether you'll just run into the same problems again.

Why do people send letters to Cary that contain so many details that they'll be instantly recognized by anyone who knows them--say, the "lazy, abusive shit" of an ex? I've often thought that these situations can't possibly end well.

As for the letter itself, I don't get it. She doesn't want to date. BFD. I don't want to date very often myself, and so I don't. Other times I do. Sometimes I eat cookie dough out of the tube. I don't feel any need to ask Cary to validate these decisions. So her mother's bugging her--that's why most of us eventually stop listening to our mothers on such matters.