I usually read Dear Abby each morning for a laugh. But in today’s column, she seems to have come up with a very un-ladylike risque zinger almost worthy of Cecil himself. The odd thing is that the key sentence doesn’t appear in today’s online column.
As published in my copy of today’s Miami Herald (International Edition), the answer to the first question reads:
The sentence in bold doesn’t appear in the on-line edition.
So what gives? Has anyone else seen this in their local editions? Or did some prankster at the Herald manage to hijack the type-setting program?
The news distribution agency I work for currently shows 10 newspapers that carried today’s Dear Abby column: Deseret Morning News, Monterey County Herald, Sun-News, Duluth News-Tribune, The Sun Herald (Biloxi, MS), Belleville News-Democrat (IL), Wichita Eagle (KS), The Kansas City Star, Chicago Tribune, and The Philadelphia Daily News.
None of the articles contain the “balls” line.
It would seem that different publications edit the column to suit their tastes (and space constraints). The articles run in length from 330 to 697 words. For example, some articles open with I married “Simon,” a year ago, while some open with I married the love of my life, “Simon,” a year ago.
You are, I think, confusing her with her twin sister “Ann Landers,” (Esther Pauline “Eppie” Friedman Lederer), who died 3 years ago. “Abigail Van Buren” is/was Pauline Esther Friedman Phillips.