×

Columns

Travel politely

Dear Heloise: My husband and I recently returned from a lovely trip to Europe. For the most part, it was enjoyable, except for a couple of embarrassing moments that were not caused by fellow Americans. We were in Germany when a man from the United States started yelling and insulting the ...

Tardy thank-you notes

Dear Annie: My daughter received some lovely gifts for her quinceanera (an important milestone in Mexican and Latin American cultures that celebrates a girl’s 15th birthday). Unfortunately, there were a few without cards or tags. I am not sure if the card became accidentally separated from ...

Husband’s hypochondria getting out of hand

Dear Annie: My husband is a hypochondriac. It is so very hard living with him. Every time he hears of someone in our family coming down with an illness, he claims he has it. He is a healthy man and perfectly able-bodied. I get disgusted when he takes a handicapped spot next to a store when I ...

Reader writes in with three hints

Dear Heloise: First, I loved your hint about chocolate bloom! I was working at a Veterans Affairs building that day and took the paper with me. I was there all day in the reception area and had the paper folded, so your heading was at the top. Everybody kept asking, “What is chocolate ...

Weather prognostications

Farmers have a large number of sayings that are used to foretell the weather and other unpredictable phenomena such as their spouses. One aphorism that springs to mind is “Early Easter, early spring.” That maxim seems to be holding up this year. Clouds of snow geese were seen honking ...

How to store food during outages

Dear Readers: With climate change has come some very unpredictable weather, which has caused many of you to ask how long food can last in the refrigerator or freezer. It appears that weather-related outages have increased significantly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and ...