"Homework Hell" just struck a very raw nerve in me. Thanks heavens my three children have been pretty good about, and at, doing their homework.

My 10 year-old nephew, who is a bright and kind child, has the attention span of a flea. Each evening he comes home from his upper-middle-class suburban school with three hours' worth of homework, which consumes the entire evening.

I thought my sister was kidding, until the evening I dropped by, unannounced, around suppertime. As my sister slaved in the kitchen to finish preparing a meal, my nephew was chained to the kitchen table, doing inane spelling and math worksheets. I spent the next four hours giving my sister some parenting backup (my brother-in-law often works evenings) and helping nephew get through his worksheets.

When Sister complained that there is too much to do in a night, Teacher responded, "have him do what he can." Except, the next night includes all the new day's materials, along with the uncompleted worksheets from the previous evening. By the weekend, the child had an accumulated 16 hours' worth of uncompleted worksheets!

In the immortal words of my mother, what the kid really needed to do was go outside and "get the stinks blowed off." Five hours of pushing papers after seven hours strapped to a desk is not what education should be about.

I agree that Cary's advice is straight on in this case.

By my math, these women should be in their late 20s, perhaps very early 30s. Why are we engaged in adolescent drama over the bride's choice of groom? Perhaps both the bride and her friend should take a big step back from the abyss. Friend has given her opinion, and been told, in effect, that her opinion matters not to Bridezilla.

Step away from the frock! Put down those flowers!

Run, do not walk, away from the wedding party, the wedding, and this "friend." She's being manipulative, and LW needs to see she's being manipulated by her old friend.

Bottom line: LW, step aside, and stand up for your own beliefs.

Forgive me for not reading the whole string of letters, to see if this has already been raised...

A correction on the first page, regarding the popular vote losers/electoral vote winners--Benjamin Harrison did NOT decline to run again. He was defeated in his bid for reelection by Grover Cleveland in 1892, making Cleveland the only US President to date who served non-consecutive terms.

That parents would find a hobby that means they don't intrude in, interfere with, or otherwise hinder their adult child's life by dropping by the house incessantly, or criticizing the LW's spouse/children/house/pets/looks.

Even more, I am shocked that anyone would get so thoroughly unglued by their parents' finding an outlet for their time and intellect. Whatever the hobby, genealogy...church activities...the local Big Ten football team...prize winning roses...Westminster dog show...X-Box...it seems clear that the LW is going to be jealous of the parents having a life beyond focus on LW.

Let them be. They will be fine. And so will LW when s/he realizes that, after they're gone, the parents' quirksome nature on the genealogy bit will only make for more interesting stories to pass along about them...when LW gets interested in the genealogy bit when s/he reaches the hideously old age of 60.

Kitchen Girl wins.

LW does not mention the legal status of her place as one of the child's mothers. Have all legal niceties been handled? Is partner-in-recovery the birth mother? Is there a genuine adoption in place?

While I don't disagree with respondents who suggest one should run and don't look back, such a move may prove short-sighted for her child if she has not protected her rights as the child's mother.

Perhaps everyone in the political world believed that Lyndon Johnson would beat Jack Kennedy in 1960. Johnson, the majority leader of the Senate, had passed the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction while recovering from a heart attack. Kennedy was seen as an upstart, all flash and no substance.

Flash forward a half-century. Hillary Clinton has been seen as the inevitable. Barack Obama had been thought a lightweight. And just as in '60 when JFK beat LBJ, it would seem that Obama will manage to pull off a similar feat versus (the) Clinton(s).

In that same spirit, perhaps the best of all worlds would be a repeat in strategy by pairing the rivals on the national ticket next fall. Why couldn't Obama/Clinton '08 be a worthwhile endeavor. It would be a fundraising powerhouse and activist segments of the party would be virtually orgasmic in their endeavors on the ticket's behalf.

And they'd show, once and for all, that America has moved firmly into the 21st century.