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Dear Annie: No more hemming and hawing

Dear Annie: I have a friend, “Rosie,” who kicked me out to the curb (metaphorically speaking) when her sister moved into her mobile home park. Prior to her sister’s moving into the neighborhood, Rosie and I saw a lot of each other. I was always sewing for Rosie, her husband and her mother-in-law at little or no cost. I sent food to her after her surgery. I helped Rosie’s sister with planning Rosie’s 60th birthday party. Meanwhile, when I had health issues and told her, she didn’t contact me afterward to see how I was. When I had a baby shower for my daughter, she did not ...

Learn more about Legionnaires’ disease and how it’s spread

DEAR DR. ROACH: I’ve been hearing about Legionnaires’ disease. What is it? How’s it spread? Can it really be spread through windshield wipers? — D.G. ANSWER: Legionnaires’ disease is a pneumonia caused by Legionella pneumophilia. It was first described in 1976, when an outbreak killed 34 people at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia. Since then, much has been learned about this condition. Legionella live in soil and water, and water remains the most important source of infections in humans — not from drinking the water but through aerosolized water. ...

Unity, and careful messaging, will be key to Dem resurgence

Here’s an easy lesson for rising political hopefuls to draw from Francesca Hong’s failed bid to be Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee: Don’t demonize Thanksgiving. Hong, a chef, state legislator and democratic socialist, was the clear front-runner in the Democratic primary race until a social media comment she posted six years ago, now deleted, turned up, in the way that old tweets often do to embarrass political candidates. You didn’t have to be a right-winger to slap your forehead, shake your head and condemn cheap shots at a holiday long cherished by countless ...

Dear Annie: Toddler

Dear Annie: My granddaughter, “Melanie,” thinks that she has a half-sister 24 years younger. Melanie believes that her father, long divorced from her mother, was asked by his former unattached girlfriend with whom he remained friendly, to “help” her have a child before it becomes biologically too late. Now, my granddaughter has become very attached to the 2 and 1/2 year old and visits her at least once a week. She finds a lot of physical resemblance to herself when she was that age. She sees her father participate lovingly in the little girl’s activities. She has asked him ...

Woman with back pain inquires about strengthening devices

DEAR DR. ROACH: I’m a 77-year-old woman with degenerative disc disease. I had an L4 microdiscectomy surgery in 2020, but I still have chronic pain in my lower back. Although I do core strengthening exercises with physical therapy (which helps), I’m still in daily pain. I’ve been seeing advertisements for multifidus muscle-strengthening devices, such as NeuroMD and ReliveX. What’s your opinion on this type of exercise device? — C.K. ANSWER: I think that better non-pharmacologic therapies are needed for back pain, and the theory of electrical stimulation to strengthen the back ...

No masculine or feminine ideals needed — just human ones

Men in the U.S. are stuck — stuck in dissatisfaction, stuck in judgement and stuck in a culture that increasingly tells them that they aren’t strong enough, attractive enough or mean enough to matter. In a perhaps related development, American sailors appear to be trying to escape the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier deployed in the Middle East for almost nine months, by the only means available to them: jumping off it into the ocean. “There have been widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, ...