It started about a year ago, and I have been round and round with Verizon to try to track it down. Any incoming email to my box from Comcast goes into the email black hole and never returns. I just never get it.

I've spent countless hours in tech support with Verizon, who cannot track down why it happens. I even had a friend who uses Comcast set up a test account for me to play with. No dice. I can send comcast mail anywhere (work, Yahoo, etc.) but my Verizon account.

I still don't know whose error it is, Comcast's or Verizon's, but I'm tired of tech support hell, and it still isn't fixed. So I opened a Yahoo account for anyone with a Comcast address. After this article, I'm now suspecting Comcast.

If it's a well-known Christian college, that says something about you that you've told us is not true.

I have a friend who has obscured his alma mater for years (Maharishi International University). He maintains that his degree is legitimate, but got tired of explaining to people that he wouldn't show up to work stoned or in tie-dye. He has since taken a completely different religious and life path than he did in his college guru-following days.

But your resume (and his)... trots out every few years when it's time to make a first impression on a new employer. A VERY critical time.

Your religion is your own issue, and many posters have addressed that. But if you have time, it might be a good idea to transfer to your local state university. A state university has the added benefit that you can be an athiest in peace there.

Many other posters have addressed the long-term and short-term effects of living with an alcoholic, so I won't talk about that.

But infidelity... you need a very quick trip to your doctor. If your husband has been unfaithful, and is as deceptive as he sounds like from your letter, the truth is that you don't know how many other partners he's had. You don't know who he's slept with, or who they slept with, or what diseases he may be bringing home to you.

Go to your doctor, ASAP, explain the situation, and get tested for everything under the sun that can be transmitted sexually. Make sure you go to whatever follow-up appointments/tests that your doctor recommends.

Then, whatever else you decide, do not sleep with this man until you have been to his doctor with him, and you know he is clean. Whatever he tells you can't be trusted... get it from his doctor.

Good luck.

So many posters have talked about public transit, living near work, and so on.

Living near work is a great ideal, but if I applied it, I'd pack up my family and move every 3-5 years when the job market takes a hiccup. Not exactly practical.

I wonder why we don't put more of our national effort into telecommuting. While it doesn't work for everyone, in every job, it would work for a lot of jobs with a bit of mental and corporate flexibility. The IT infrasturcture is there, and would be infinitely cheaper on a national level. What about tax credits to corporations who provide real work-at-home options, instead of forcing everyone to haul their butt to work every day to sit at a keyboard? "Face time" in a cube farm does not equal productivity.

I have a gas-guzzling SUV because it was a gift from an elderly family member who was finished driving. I'm not going to give away a free car, and it's great for camping and skiing. However, I also work at home 100% of the time, and said SUV spends a lot of its time parked in the driveway. My commute is up the stairs in my socks.

How much of our freeways are packed with cars transporting people to a place where they don't really NEED to be?

Just asking.

... is that People Have Sex.

It's that simple. People have sex. Whether it's right, wrong, good, bad, illicit, within marriage, outside marriage, in the back seat of a car, in a college dorm room, or in a boring suburban bedroom. It happens everywhere, all the time, all over the place.

We can either accept that simple fact of human nature and prepare for it (universally available contraception and education), or we can waggle our collective fingers and say "naughty naughty."

Speaking from the point of view of public policy, I can tell you what will be more effective. However, the "naughty naughty," viewpoint unfortunately gets more airplay and funding.

My parents met and married while working for Ma Bell. My dad started out climbing poles, back in the mid 50s, and was recruited out of his high school electronics class.

He survived the divestiture of Ma Bell, stayed around long enough to get a hefty buyout offer after 37 years with the phone company (which by then wasn't the Phone Company any more).

Stories like his don't exist any more. A technician job like he had, out of high school, is nonexistent. They'd at least want a 2-year electronics degree (on the student's dime), and who knows how long the job would last?

My dad had the kind of loyalty to his employer that doesn't exist any more either. He was a phone company man through and through, until the divestiture chewed him up and spit him out. He still tells stories about the depression (told by the company "old guys" when dad was young), when the phone company cut everyone's hours equally, but kept everyone on. No one got rich, but no one starved. No one lost their jobs. Try that today, as a corporation, and they'd be laughed out of the marketplace.

Just curious. I'd love a link if anyone has one about solar effectiveness in a place where it is dreary and rainy 6 months of the year (somewhat north of California).