It was once said, 'Christian, remember your dignity.' Pope Leo I, or Pope Leo the Great, as he's also known, ruled in the mid-fifth century, but his words have plenty to teach us in our current moment. Every Christmas Day, Catholics read his sermon, in which he implores: 'Dearly beloved, today our Savior is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness.'
DEAR HARRIETTE: I sent the wrong text to a gym buddy, and now I am sure that she thinks I like her more than I do. I met a really nice girl at the gym, and although we have not gone on a formal date, we have grabbed a bite to eat together after working out. We flirt a lot.
ASK THE DOCTORS
Two things are true: One, former President Donald Trump’s polling – nationally, in key swing states, and in the first-voting state of Iowa – has never been better. And two, Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by the Biden Justice Department to prosecute Trump, is taking self-described “extraordinary” measures in a rush to put Trump on trial before the 2024 presidential election. The two things are not unrelated. And nothing could more effectively illustrate the contrast between Trump’s rising political fortunes and the administration’s effort to imprison him before the election.
• It’s believed something like 5 billion pounds of unwanted holiday gifts – sweaters, gift baskets, candy, decor and more – end up in landfills every year. That means a lot of “perfect” gifts ended up being wastes of resources and money. For gift-giving, think less materialistic and more experiential. A night out for dinner with friends, paid access to a news outlet or a subscription to a digital music service are all great gifts to give ... with no waste!
DEAR HARRIETTE: My teenage granddaughter, who is a junior in high school, and I are going through a period of disagreement. It seems like we can’t see eye to eye on anything lately.
With the passage of House Bill 2418, which took effect Nov. 1, Oklahoma became the first state in the nation to require a course for new teen drivers to teach them about safety in road construction zones and when around first responders.
DEAR HARRIETTE: My birthday just passed, and I am throwing a birthday party at my friend’s house. I used to invite everyone in my grade to my parties when I was younger, but my classes were also very small then. Now that I am in college, I cannot invite everybody.
Hello, dear readers, and welcome to our monthly letters column. With chillier weather in much of the country, we’re getting a lot of questions about flu and COVID-19 prevention. And to everyone who wrote in last month to share your frustration with (and adverse effects from) the return to standard time, you are not alone. The switch prompted some interesting questions about sleep, which we’ll address in future columns.
There is a subterranean conversation going on in the United States that every one of the country’s 500 or so political insiders is conducting, but that none of the rest of the 332 million Americans has heard. For the time being, that conversation is meaningless. But if it becomes consequential, it will reach the ears of everyone, change the course of global history, reshape the character of the Democratic Party, perhaps affect the nature of the Republican Party, and surely overhaul all the knowns (and create new unknowns) about the 2024 election.