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Dear Annie: Group gift busts the budget

Columns

Dear Annie: My siblings and I usually go in on gifts for my parents for birthdays and holidays. Since there are five of us, we can pool enough for something really nice, such as new golf clubs or a weekend away, rather than five smaller separate gifts. My dad’s birthday is coming up, and my sister sent around her usual text to coordinate. The problem is my finances are especially tight this year. My car needed a ton of work last month, my landlord just raised the rent, and I’m still paying off student loans. I don’t want my dad to think I care less, and I don’t want my ...

How older adults can prevent low sodium levels

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: I’m a 79-year-old woman who’s trying her best to stay strong physically with daily exercise, eating right, and successfully living independently after the death of my husband. Other than taking one 20-mg benazepril tablet daily for high blood pressure, I’m in pretty good health. Recently, several friends who are close to my age have been diagnosed with low blood sodium levels. One landed in the ICU for several days, while others had problems with falls, swollen ankles and legs, slurred speech, and difficulty thinking and problem-solving, among other symptoms. ...

How death penalty opponents share the blame for botched executions

Columns

“Botched” is a perfectly fine word for golf, cooking, or home repair. It seems inadequate for the taking of a life, even the life of Christa Pike, a heinous murderer. In 1996, a jury found Pike guilty of the torture and murder of her Jobs Corps classmate, Colleen Slemmer. Pike was sentenced to death. In the 30 years since, her case has gone through at least seven major rounds of appeal and judicial review, including four petitions to the Supreme Court. All were rejected. This doesn’t even include the many more attempts to reopen or reverse her sentence that went nowhere. She is ...

Dear Annie: Employee out of office, boss out of line

Columns

Dear Annie: I recently returned from a lovely two-week vacation to Europe with my husband. It’s rare that we get a trip like this, so we were looking forward to it, and it did not disappoint! I set clear expectations with my team at work beforehand that I’d be fully off work. Everyone respected that — except my boss, who texted me not once but twice with inconsequential questions he could have easily directed to anyone else on my team. This happened last year, too, which I chalked up to a fluke at the time, but now I’m wondering if it’s a pattern. I’m incredibly ...

The night Linden Avenue stopped feeling safe

Columns

The Evans family threw a Halloween party every year in their backyard on Linden Avenue. Neighbor Jeannine Fisher told WPXI, the local NBC affiliate, that she remembers “tons of people and kids” there. She also remembers the first time she met Idris Evans: He helped carry her groceries from down the street to her house. It’s the kind of street where that still happens. It’s also the kind of street where people don’t think much about whether the kitchen window is open on a warm September night. Just after midnight on Sept. 24, police say someone came through that ...

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: As a 69-year-old female, when my cholesterol reached 250 mg/dL, I was prescribed and started taking 10 mg of rosuvastatin daily. I soon noticed a constant ringing/buzzing in my ears. Six months later, my cholesterol was down to 183 mg/dL. Another four months have passed, and the tinnitus is worse than ever and keeps me up at night. I’m also experiencing daily headaches. Realizing coincidence isn’t causation, I do wonder whether a link of any kind between statins and tinnitus has been investigated. I saw an ear, nose and throat doctor and an audiologist; my hearing ...