Which one is better? I feel there advice is too homespun to be of any real use but Abby seems to be the better writer.
Ann seems to be constantly apologizing for spreading UL.
Is “Ann” still Ann? I was under the impression that Ann retired (or at least cut back to Sunday-only columns) many years ago while Abby has stayed with the daily column.
Did Ann not retire?
Tom~
Aren’t these two sisters?
-David
Abby is better than Ann, but they both stink. I’ll take Miss Manners any day. She can whup 'um both with one arm tied behind her back.
Ann’s the smart one, Abby’s the dumb one. Abby’s usually still saying, ‘there, there’ to someone that Ann would be saying ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ to.
They’re both getting awfully long in the tooth, though. Carolyn Hax (“Tell Me About It”, available in the Washington Post, including their online edition, and other newspapers) has them both beat by a mile.
Miss Manners’ advice is limited to etiquette, so her v. Ann/Abby isn’t really an even comparison.
I get amused when one of them suggests the person talk to a priest/rabbi/whatever for help. Hey, dummy, they wrote to you for help! Telling them to go somewhere else isn’t terribly helpful in many cases!
Anyway, they are both still around, and both still making mistakes.
I dunno, David…
‘I can’t help you, but your Rabbi/Priest/Minister/Therapist/Dog Groomer/whatthehellever might be able to though.’ Sounds like a damned good, and more to the point damned responsible response.
Eschew Obfuscation
Both Dear Abby and Ann Landers have been out to lunch for as long as I can remember. (Does anyone under 75 ever write to them? I doubt it- if they had any non-geriatric readers, would every other column be about “How I met my spouse at the USO during the war”?)
All-time classic Ann Landers story? During the 70s, when I was in high school, my friends and I were dying laughing when Ann published a letter from a grand ma saying, “I was doing laundry, and a found a little pair of pliers in my granddaughter’s jeans. I asked her what they were for, and she said that kids wear such tight jeans, she needed the pliers to pull them on. Ann, is this true?”
Landers said, “With the pants kids wear today, I believe it. SHe’s telling the truth.”
Now, I was an utter nerd in high school (I know, hard to believe, considering what a macho stud I am today!), and have never smoked pot in my life… but even a geek like me knew what a roach clip was!!! Ann Landers was clueless in the 1970s, and can’t possibly have gotten smarter since.
Dear Ann (Abby), please, please publish again that article “Dear God, I’m only 17”. It has been a whole 8 or 9 months since I have seen this article and you should re-publish it every month (instead of every year). I really, really love your articles, even when you publish them again and again.
Oh, one other thing – both of them have been known to pass along well-known urban legends without bothering to check them out. I find that rather irresponsible.
Tengu – you are right that sometimes it is a good idea to say something like that, but I see it from them all too often, and in what I consider to be silly cases.
Neither. Carolyn Hax and/or Lynn Harris by a long shot.
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They both got a little better than they were…they came to terms with people accepting others who might be “homosexual”.
Ann is better.
They are both from Chicago, twin sisters of Jewish ancestry, which at least made them cognizant of the fact that not everyone should consult a priest or a minister - they added “rabbi” which for its time was a step…
They both live on East Lake Shore Drive if anyone cares (that’s an exclusive 1 block stretch going E-W near Oak). I do have some hot skinny on one of them that I can’t seem to remember, some funny anecdote from a waiter I know. Obviously it isn’t interesting eough for me to have remembered it after all these years.
While it is apples and oranges, I do prefer Miss Manners.
Miss Manners, for all that her column is supposed to be about etiquette, often gives much better advice on all other topics than either Ann or Abby.
But my new favorite is Dan Savage of Savage Love.
Will work for sig line.
I think they need to resign and give the advice column to fresh blood. After the LBBB mess, perhaps Cece is available…?
Fretful, where can one read Lynn Harris? I haven’t heard of her.
Lisa, you’re right – they should quit and turn over the reigns to Dr. Laura!
KIDDING! KIDDING!
Careful, David B., or I’ll sic her on you. The only two people I can think of that would be worse are:
- Martha Stewart - Dr. Laura with a glue gun
or - Delilah - if you don’t know who this radio personality is, consider yourself LUCKY!
While Martha Stewart is certainly annoying, I don’t think she can hold a candle to Dr. Laura. I mean, Dr. Laura is annoying, self-righteous, obnoxious, hypocritical, and, well, I could go on, but I think you get the idea (as if you didn’t already know these things already).
Not only are they twins, but they have the same, albeit reversed, given names.
“Abby” is Pauline Esther Friedman.
“Ann” is Esther Pauline Friedman.