[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from TUESDAY, FEB 28, 2006 His relatives talk about “fags” and say girls in miniskirts deserve to be raped. Dear Cary, I have met a lovely guy at last after years of being single or dating disastrous men. I am now happy and secure and this man wants to marry me and...
Dragged into the ring
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from THURSDAY, JAN 30, 2003 My boyfriend promised we’d be engaged by Christmas but we weren’t. Should I let it go or move out? Dear Cary, I have been dating my boyfriend for four years, and living with him for most of that time. We started (I think mutually) to...
My 16-year-old daughter is drinking
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from WEDNESDAY, JUL 20, 2005 I didn’t want to start a fight, so I told her it wasn’t so bad. But I hate what she’s doing. What should I do? Dear Cary, I am trying to be a good liberal parent who stays aware of what her 16-year-old daughter...
Can I still be sober if I get drunk just once a week?
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from Tuesday, Mar 8, 2005 I’d like to stop drinking, but does that mean completely? All week long? Dear Cary, It seems like every other letter you answer has implications of alcoholism. The common theme that I see in your letters is that people can get by...
As a foster kid, I never learned to brush my teeth
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from THURSDAY, JUL 15, 2010 I’m afraid to go into the bathroom, because of things that happened in childhood Dear Cary, You recently wrote about when “to change your life.” I think I’m there now. And it isn’t a problem with my problem that I’m writing about. Where I...
My great big Muslim-Jewish-atheist wedding
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from THURSDAY, SEP 12, 2013 Can a devout Muslim and a Jewish atheist have a happy marriage? Hi Cary, I was born in the States to a conservative Muslim Indian family. My mother, younger brothers and I moved back to India when I was around 11, while my (very...
I let a homeless man move in with me and now I can’t get rid of him
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from TUESDAY, APR 8, 2008 It’s not like I picked him up off the street. I’ve known him for 20 years. Once he was my boyfriend. Cary, I made the mistake of letting a homeless man move in with me. Now I can’t get rid of him. I’ve known this man for over 20 years. At...
Homeless, with diamonds
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from Friday, Feb 6, 2004 I’m married to a wonderful man, but he doesn’t seem to share my fear of financial humiliation. Dear Cary, I have been spoiled with a very happy life. I am 26, married to a wonderful 34-year-old man whom I love more than anyone in the...
I quit being a musician because I couldn’t play without drinking
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from Wednesday, Apr 16, 2008 Now my life is all screwed up and nothing works. Dear Cary, I turn 31 in a couple of weeks, and I feel like I’m unable to get my life together. I thought I would’ve had things sorted out by now, but I don’t. I don’t feel a whole lot more...
Grrrr! I’m one angry mofo! How to process my rage?
Dear Cary, Please help me process my murderous rage – a rage i suspect others share as well. I’m sorry you don’t seem to be on Salon anymore. You were pretty much the only reason I bothered with that site so I haven’t been in ages. I’m not 100% sure whether you’re still doing this advice thing or what the new protocol is, your site seems to indicate...
I’m 22 and stuck! How do I break out?
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from SUNDAY, NOV 22, 2009 I think I’m a writer, but fear paralyzes me Dear Cary, I feel paralyzed and stuck in a rut. I recently graduated from college without a clear path and a hazy focus at best; I am lost and confused and can recognize that I self-sabotage any...
You were victimized by a sociopath. Stop putting your hand in the flame
Hi! It’s me, Cary! How ya doin? I’m out of the pool eating toast and thinking about the novel. I’m committed to finishing by the end of May. I have it all planned out. It’s practically done! Finally. Plus yesterday I finished my application to Yaddo, thanks to my Finishing School commitment. It was a long day but I got it done before my 6pm writing coaching appointment...
How can I free myself of my parents’ control?
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from FRIDAY, JUL 15, 2005 Mom and Dad say if I don’t lose weight, they won’t find me an apartment for grad school. Dear Cary, I am a 24-year-old young man who lives with his parents in a wealthy suburb of a major American city. I graduated from college three years...
OK, I get it, my husband’s a verbal abuser
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from WEDNESDAY, OCT 8, 2008 It’s taken me a long time to accept what my therapist has been pushing at — but I think I’m ready to act in my own interest. Dear Cary, I’m troubled. At long last, my therapist did something I sensed she meant to do a long time ago...
Let’s buy big, shiny things and act goofy!
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from Thursday, Dec 16, 2010 The avalanche of presents leaves me cold, but I feel guilty for opting out Dear Cary, I know this is a trivial problem but I’m fretting about it. I am single and I usually see my sister and her family at Christmas. There are eight...
I’m a sad lil’ starfucker and can’t get him out of my head
Dear Cary, My husband of 16 years and I have never made an official list, but it’s always been accepted that were we to have, in some fantasyland, the opportunity to sleep with a certain few adored famous people, the sin would be exonerated. (I should mention here that over the years both of us have had our indiscretions with plain old normals, and while the aftermath has never been fun...
My girlfriend “settled” for me — and I don’t trust her
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from Wednesday, Oct 15, 2008 I shouldn’t have looked in her diary, but maybe it’s best that I did. Dear Cary, This summer, my girlfriend went to Central America for three months. She was in spotty contact with me the whole time, saying it was difficult to...
My husband doesn’t want this kid!
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from SUNDAY, APR 10, 2011 We talked and I thought he was up for this, but now it looks like he never was Dear Cary, I am a 33-year-old married mother of one. While the discussion of having more children was always sort of tabled for my husband and me, after hearing...
My terrific online friend is terrible in person!
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from Wednesday, Oct 12, 2005 How can someone so special on the Internet be such a drag in real life? Dear Cary, I have this friend. Let’s call her Susan. Susan and I became friends online several years ago, through mutual (in person) friends. For several...
I don’t like his kids
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from THURSDAY, AUG 6, 2009 I thought I could learn to love being a stepmom, but I don’t Dear Cary, I’m probably one of the most unromantic people who ever lived, and have always cringed when someone says they found their “soul mate” or their “one and only,” because...
I’m cheating on my husband and loving it. Is that a problem?
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from TUESDAY, OCT 9, 2007 I’ve been a cheater since my very first boyfriend and no one has ever found out. Cary, I am a cheater. I’ve never had a boyfriend or husband that I didn’t cheat on. When I was younger, it would just be making out behind a boyfriend’s back;...
I’m already dreading Christmas with my family
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from Friday, Sep 30, 2005 We’ll sit around with nothing to say, eating takeout food. Dear Cary, I know this is pretty early, but I’m already freaking out about hanging out with my family during Christmas. My family consists of my mother, my father, my brother and...
I forgot to tell my wife I have a 12-year-old daughter
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from FRIDAY, JUL 8, 2005 I fathered a child when I was a screwed-up loser and kept it secret all these years. Dear Cary, Boy, did I screw up. About 13 years ago, I fell for a friend of my sister’s and got her pregnant. I was at this point in my life a loser. I had...
I’m a crappy girlfriend
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from Tuesday, Nov 30, 2010 I put my boyfriend through hell. How can I stop? Dear Cary, My problem is that I’m a pretty crappy girlfriend. I have been in a relationship for over a year with someone that I really care about. He and I met in graduate school and have...
Mom says dump the boyfriend or leave home!
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from THURSDAY, JUN 25, 2009 We got caught making out and now my mom’s all like you have to break up with him if you want to keep living here Dear Cary, My name is V and I’m 18 years old. I have a boyfriend and he’s 18 years old too, but the situation here is that my...
I’m a compulsive liar
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2005 My deceptions are elaborate and crazy but I can’t seem to stop. Dear Cary, I don’t really know what good this will do; I just think I need to tell someone, some soul, the truth about who I am. Ever since the 10th grade or so (I’m just...
Can I stop my aging parents from suing each other into oblivion?
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from TUESDAY, SEP 9, 2008 Divorced, they’ve been squabbling in courts for over a decade. Dear Cary, I write this letter to you with the hope of gaining some clarity in a situation that it appears I cannot remove myself from. My parents have been divorced for more...
My Christian daughter says I’m going to hell
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column THURSDAY, OCT 4, 2007 03:10 AM PDT I don’t believe in God but I want to allay her fears. Hi, I am the father of a 13-year-old daughter whose mother has been taking her to an evangelical Christian church her whole life. Her mother’s family is entirely Christian. I am...
My best friend is down on his luck. How can I help?
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from SUNDAY, OCT 17, 2010 We grew up differently. I got great guidance from parents and friends. He kind of drifted. Now he’s in a tough spot Dear Cary, I have something of a quandary with a friend of mine. He’s my oldest friend, we’ve known each other since we were...
I won’t grovel for my mother-in-law!
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from Tuesday, Apr 12, 2011 After all I’ve been through, I snapped. I don’t want to apologize, but I want my family back. Dear Cary, In the past three years, I have had a great deal of loss. My father, both grandmothers and my 36-year-old brother died. My mother had...
My father’s widow is stingy
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from THURSDAY, JUN 9, 2005 I know he would have wanted to give me more money, but his will left everything to her. Dear Cary, I’m 34. My father passed away a year and half ago. He remarried when I was 15 but started dating my stepmom (SM) when I was 9. Dad and SM...
I’m a Harvard grad who can’t hold a fast-food job
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2009 I have a history of depression and I’m back at my parents’ — but I have an Ivy League film degree! Dear Cary, I am a week shy of my 25th birthday, and I am back living in my parents’ home. I have a degree from Harvard and a year of...
I was duped
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from TUESDAY, JUL 1, 2003 No one told me how disappointing and boring married life is! Dear Cary, I am a 34-year-old woman, married for about 14 months. If I had known how disappointing and boring marriage would be, I would never have done it. What is worse...
My husband won’t do his laundry
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from THURSDAY, AUG 23, 2007 We were sharing household duties, but then things got out of whack and now I’m ready to bitch-slap my hubby! Dear Cary: My husband won’t do his laundry and I want to bitch-slap him. Yes, this is coming from a middle-aged...
After my husband died of cancer I found he’d been cheating
[button link=”mailto:[email protected]” newwindow=”yes”] Write for Advice[/button] Cary’s classic column from THURSDAY, DEC 13, 2007 We have three small children and I am devastated. Hi, I need desperate help, please. My husband died of cancer a week ago. The day after his funeral, I learned he’d been having Internet sex, which didn’t stop there. He met up with...
