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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When she first began -- nearly 20 years ago, mind you -- she was a fresh alternative to the Dear Abby type advice columns. A few things that distinguished her included:

-- A willingness to tackle subjects that other advice columnists would not, especially things like homosexuality, getting along with exes, roommate relationships, etc. These topics were more on the forefront of her audience at the time -- other 20 somethings. At times, the dilemmas she opined on bordered a trollish.

-- A bias to being selfish. Most of her responses really seem to be oriented more around acting rationally and in self-interest moreso than "doing the right thing" unless doing the right thing also happened to be politically correct. So, there was more "run, run as fast you can" type advice.

-- A flippant writing style (see "Wow, just wow")

-- The first columnist, so far as I know, to host live chats on the Internet (a model since copied by Emily Yoffe and others). So, there was more feedback and interaction between readers. It was, for lack of a better explanation,  innovative.
the first crowd-sourced advice column. So, very
-- The witty cartoons by her ex-husband.

Over time she's become more predictable in her advice, which remains very self-centered at its heart. Like any columnist, sometimes it's spot on, sometimes not. The writing style has become a bit tiresome. And the column fodder itself tends to lean too heavily on reader/chat content. I think she only writes like two columns a week -- so the other three days it's recycled from chat sessions.

Now, she's in her 40s with a couple of kids and an ex-husband. Nothing wrong with that. But she can't really speak to her original audience with the same authority she once did. So, I get why some people don't care for her.[/quote]
I think you have summarized her quite well!  I still read her, but I aged with her. I also often agree with her advice. I read for entertainment as I enjoy advice columns (I have no idea why) and read her as well as Ask Amy or any other advice column I come across in various publications. [/quote]

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