Today's lesson is in the phenomenon known as 'negative partisanship.' Don't turn away from this column thinking you have no idea what that means. You know exactly what it means — and you probably feel it profoundly.
DEAR HARRIETTE: I've been dealing with a situation where my parents constantly tell family members about my personal life without my consent. This has caused me a lot of distress as I feel like my privacy is being violated. It's frustrating to think that I have no control over what personal information my family members know about me. My parents seem to believe it's their right to disclose this information, but I strongly disagree.
Dear Doctors: I have been having anxiety, and now my blood pressure is getting high, too. Are they related? I understand that medications might become necessary, but I would prefer to try nonmedical treatments first. Can you recommend supplements that can help to reduce these issues?
The governor this year signed into law three House bills and 13 Senate bills on which I was the House principal author.
DEAR HARRIETTE: I've usually only kept one or two close friends around me and considered the rest of the people I interacted with acquaintances. I tried having a larger friend group, and that didn't fare well for me for many reasons, so I went back to just having one or two close friends.
They put in a new sidewalk, my neighbor said, and the first thing that happened was, a cat walked across the cement and left little footprints!
ISTANBUL — When Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed a crowd of supporters here in Istanbul after winning a new five-year term as Turkey's president, he was not wearing a red hat proclaiming 'Make Turkey Great Again.' But he might as well have been. Erdogan looks and sounds a whole lot like Donald Trump.
DEAR HARRIETTE: I had a friend over for dinner who brought along a friend of their own. While I was in the kitchen preparing food, the friend of a friend had free range of the house. After they left, I realized that a valuable item was missing, and I can’t shake the feeling that it was this friend of a friend who took it. The problem is I have no concrete proof.
ASK THE DOCTORS
30 YEARS AGO