Breaking News

Columns

Dear Annie: Doing the work but still a work in progress

Dear Annie: A lot of things improved when I got sober five years ago. I left a toxic job and started my own business, where I’ve made some good friends. I improved my relationship with my kids, now 7 and 9, so much that I became the preferred parent. I’m even healthier thanks to a new dog who loves walking and comes almost everywhere with me. The two areas that haven’t improved are my relationship with my wife and with my parents and siblings. The way they treated me was the reason I drank. That’s not an excuse, but I don’t think it was fair to be treated so poorly, either. ...

Unexpected furniture can make for neat — and functional — pieces

Furniture can take unexpected forms, especially in contemporary design. From the late twentieth century onward, advances in technology created a wealth of new materials and construction techniques for designers to use, and social and cultural changes encouraged experimental approaches with new ...

Politicians can’t just ‘give the people what they want’

For reasons that will baffle my many detractors, I am often asked for advice about being an opinion journalist. One of my standard responses is: You have to be willing to disappoint your biggest fans. What I mean is that if you start to see your job as telling fans what they want to hear, you risk becoming an entertainer rather than a thinker, and eventually you become a caricature. I’ve seen it happen numerous times. Patrick Buchanan was a brilliant columnist and a serious person. But over the course of his career, he listened too much to the people who said, “Go Pat, go!” and ...

What voters see in the parties

The November midterm vote will be shaped less by party slogans than by the judgments voters make about their daily lives: whether prices feel manageable, whether their communities feel safe, and whether Washington is listening. Neither party can assume that frustration with its opponent automatically amounts to trust in itself. The economy is the clearest test. Recent national surveys show that 84% of registered voters consider it very important to their vote. That includes 88% of voters supporting Democratic House candidates and 82% supporting Republicans. Democrats hold an 8-point ...

Dear Annie: Marriage has lost its get-up-and-go

Dear Annie: I’ve been married only a few short years. My husband and I used to go out and have fun; we’d do things like day trips to the beach or going out to eat, just to get out of the house. Over the past few years, he has decided that his favorite pastime is sitting on the sofa. If I mention going somewhere, he comes up with an excuse: it’s too hot, gas is too expensive, he’s tired. Or if he agrees to go somewhere, he will cancel when the time comes to go, usually with one of the above-mentioned excuses. However, if it’s something he wants to do, he can’t get there ...

DEAR DR. ROACH: I read your recent column on people with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) needing to urinate more than others. What about those who have central sleep apnea (CSA)? I’m a 74-year-old male who’s taking medications for an enlarged prostate, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure, which are all under control. I urinate maybe twice a night during my sleep, sometimes not at all. I had a sleep study done in 2017, which showed CSA that wasn’t controlled by the end of the study. A CPAP device didn’t help, and I’m now using a BiPAP machine. Does the frequent urination ...