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Dear Annie: How to support a partner healing from trauma

Columns

Dear Annie: My soon-to-be fiancee has had an incredibly hard year. She had ankle surgery and a difficult recovery. She worked hard to get her mental health back on track. She gave up drinking for me. She also went through serious family drama after being kicked out of her aunt’s house, and she had to sue to get out of the situation. She won. For most of her life, her family had a lot of control over her. After more than 50 years, she finally stood up for herself and told them how she felt. I am so proud of her. Right now, I feel like her biggest cheerleader. We have known each ...

Lie at heart of Trump’s slush fund

Columns

The Orwellian ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ Trump has created — the legal equivalent of twirling the combination lock on Fort Knox and driving off with gold bars — purports to be righting a wrong. The bogus (and badly written) “settlement agreement,” which is laughable as there was no true lawsuit, claims to be compensating those who were victims of the “sustained use of the levers of government power by Democrat elected officials.” It goes on like that, accusing Democrats of “lawfare” and “weaponization.” Even more than usual with Trump, this foul fund represents a ...

Man with hemicrania continua requires indefinite therapy

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: My future son-in-law was diagnosed with hemicrania continua several weeks ago by a neurologist and is responding to indomethacin. Could you provide a prognosis for this illness? The internet says that it can take anywhere from weeks to months to years. Is this likely the case? — M.I.L. ANSWER: Hemicrania continua is an unusual type of headache syndrome. It’s often misdiagnosed, with 50% of people not receiving a correct diagnosis for eight years. The pain is on one side of the head (hence “hemicrania”), and the pain severity can be high, with over 70% of ...

Dear Annie: Father feels invisible in fight over inheritance

Columns

Dear Annie: Dear Annie: My 90-year-old father has been married to his third wife, who is 85, for nearly 33 years. Between them, they have five adult children: two are his and three are hers. For their entire marriage, they have relied largely on my father’s retirement account to pay their day-to-day living expenses. His wife does not have a retirement account of her own. They also have two homes. One is a summer cottage that was in her family before they married. The other is a winter home they purchased together. Recently, as they began revising their wills, my father said he ...

The California dream ends in empty reservoirs and homeless tents

Columns

Many years ago, sometime after Ronald Reagan replaced Pat Brown as governor of California, I was driving up the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco and visited Hearst Castle, William Randolph Hearst’s epic mansion in San Simeon. It was state property then, donated by the Hearst family, and the uniformed guide struck me as knowledgeable, competent and proud of her work. Some time later, I wrote articles arguing that California, not yet the highest-tax state but never a tax haven either, was proof that big government could provide competent services. For a generation under Govs. ...

Antique games can command significant interest

Columns

Tennis, anyone? How about table tennis? The tabletop version of the sport is believed to have begun in Victorian England as a parlor game played by the upper class. Early equipment was improvised; instead of a net, players are said to have lined up a row of books across a table and hit a golf ...