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Dear Annie: I can’t be my grieving mother’s caregiver

Columns

Dear Annie: My father died two years ago after more than 50 years of marriage. Since then, my mother seems to have stopped living. She spent her entire adult life caring for my father and raising our family. She rarely did anything just for herself. My father handled the finances, made most of the decisions and was the more social one. Now my mother calls me several times a day. She asks me to make appointments, pay bills, arrange repairs and help with even small decisions. I love her and want to help. But I have a job and a family of my own. Lately, I feel more like her parent than ...

No price too high for evading back-to-school shopping

Columns

In the pantheon of parental duties, shopping for school supplies stands alone. At the tripart crossroads of “least enjoyable,” “most expensive” and “least negotiable,” it is an intrinsic part of life in late summer, and it has been since I was a kid in the Cretaceous era. I remember it much more fondly from that perspective — being the receiver of shiny No. 2 pencils, folders, composition notebooks and a Trapper Keeper to hold it all together. I’m certain my parents found the experience annoying and expensive, but with all due respect, they had absolutely no ...

Dermatologist prescribes metformin for woman’s skin rash

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: I have a skin rash (granuloma annulare), and my dermatologist said that there really isn’t a cure for it. It’s in various areas of my body — my upper back, my trunk (mostly in areas where garments hit), and a few other places. The dermatologist recommended using metformin to see if this helps. All my labs are excellent, so metformin has never been something that any of my docs suggested. She even looked at my labs and said that they were great but wants to see if metformin might help. Have you ever heard of this? Should I find a different dermatologist? I’m a ...

Making my bed isn’t about productivity. It’s about kindness.

Columns

While visiting my mom, my son asked, “Why do I have to make my bed at Grandma’s house?” I smoothed the quilt over the mattress and answered without thinking, “Because Grandma likes it neat and she deserves a nice space.” My response surprised me. What did being tidy have to do with worth? I somehow managed to frame household chores as a matter of being deserving. Self-worth is a lifelong lesson for me. Like many of us, it’s something I’ve worked on through therapy and journaling. I confront my demons, and I like to think I’m slaying them one by one. I thought my ...

The moral paradox of extreme wealth: Why people oppose it yet are reluctant to take steps to reduce it

Columns

In 2026 — up until July — Elon Musk’s estimated wealth was growing by somewhere between US$30 million and $100 million an hour, making him, at least briefly, the worlds’ first trillionaire. By comparison, the typical American worker earns between $23 and $56 an hour. While Musk’s wealth, even in the face of recent losses, is extreme, dramatic disparities have become commonplace. As of 2026, America had nearly 1,000 billionaires, whereas, according to the most recent federal data available, in 2024 roughly 10.6% of the population — or 35.9 million people — lived below the ...

Starches should be a modest part of a mixed meal

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: I’m a 77-year-old man who’s prediabetic. I was told by a longtime diabetic that sugar (candy, soda, cake, etc.) doesn’t need to be avoided — just carbohydrates such as pasta, potatoes, etc. I was surprised to hear this. Is it really true? — Anon. ANSWER: We often use terms like carbohydrates, starches and sugars imprecisely. Strictly speaking, sugars are small molecules (usually 5 or 6 carbon molecules long), like glucose or fructose, which are called monosaccharides. These can also be combined into a single molecule (a disaccharide), which, in the case of ...