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Dear Annie: Cornered by my sister’s constant invitations

Dear Annie: I moved to northern Florida over a year ago to help care for my parents. My sister has lived in southern Florida for many years, and for as long as I can remember, nearly every conversation with her includes the same question: “When are you coming down?” Before I moved here, she asked it constantly. Once, she and her husband picked me up from the airport, and before we had even left the curb, she asked, laughing, “When are you coming down again?” She knows it irritates me, but she does it anyway. Now that I live in the same state, nothing has changed. It is still, ...

How certain ‘sleep’ medications affect sleep quality and stages

DEAR DR. ROACH: I have occasional difficulty when going to sleep and/or getting back to sleep. I have tried Ambien, trazodone, clonazepam and Lunesta. All have their pros and cons. My question regards sleep quality. I know there are several stages of sleep that we should go through and that the brain cleans out junk during sleep. Do these sleep aids still allow a person to go through the needed sleep stages and also allow the brain to clean itself? Are any of these meds better or worse than the others for occasional use? — S.H. ANSWER: How much time we spend in the different stages ...

The ‘debate’ over global poverty continues

The new “Global Justice Report” by the World Inequality Lab in France — which calls for caps on economic growth in rich countries, top income-tax rates of 90% and a World Sovereign Fund to redistribute wealth to the Global South — has reignited one of the oldest debates in economics: How do we actually lift people out of poverty? The data have never left much question. The answer is economic growth. Nonetheless, many development economists have spent decades arguing that growth isn’t enough or as important as development aid. The French report is simply a radical expression ...

Elon Musk’s new ‘trillionaire’ status is a good thing, actually

I am not a huge fan of Elon Musk as a political activist or commentator. I think he’s made Twitter — sorry, X — worse. His support for the nationalist right in Europe has been ugly. His tenure leading the Department of Government Efficiency mostly amounted to a missed opportunity and often descended into little more than performative vandalism. His personal life is not exactly consonant with my preference for bourgeois family values. Though, one can hardly accuse him of being a deadbeat dad. On the other hand, I am a huge fan of his accomplishments in business and engineering. He ...

Dear Annie: Grandma’s jewelry may be lost, but her love isn’t

Dear Annie: My 15-year-old daughter was given a piece of sentimental jewelry on the day of her grandmother’s funeral. It had belonged to her grandmother, and the gesture was meant to be a beautiful way for my daughter to carry a piece of her with her. At the time, my daughter seemed touched. She wore it a few times, and I remember feeling comforted seeing it on her, as if this small object helped connect the generations during a very sad time. Now, only a few months later, I fear the jewelry has been lost. We have searched drawers, jewelry boxes, backpacks, coat pockets, bathroom ...

‘Tumor seeding’ very rarely occurs during biopsies

DEAR DR. ROACH: I read your recent column on prostate biopsies. I’m no doctor, but I’d advise against them. My boyfriend got a biopsy in 2012, which I believe caused his cancer to spread beyond his prostate into his bones. He died three years later in 2015. Think about this: A needle is inserted to extract cells so that they can be tested. When the needle is pulled out with its open end, and cancer is present, cells in the needle can then come out of the open end, causing cancer to spread throughout the prostate. It may be rare, but this is documented (tumor seeding). — ...