Opinion

Dear Annie: When the time comes -- hopefully I pass before my loving husband and faithful partner of nearly 25 years, but if not -- I could use a few words of advice as to how to deal with my estranged step-daughter, her bitter mother (both vultures) and her young children who I’ve never met due to an unresolved falling out many years ago.

In December 2022, Donald Trump said something that, in a healthy political culture, would have spelled his doom. He wrote, “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”

Will the world be better off with fewer people? For years that has been a hypothetical question posed to suggest an affirmative answer. Fewer people, it was claimed, would mean less depredation of natural resources, less urban overcrowding, more room for other species to stretch their (actual or metaphorical) legs. Mankind was a parasite, a blight, and overpopulation a disease. Fewer people would mean a better Earth.

Could a second Biden term be more injurious to the economy than his first term? It seems unimaginable given the first three years gave us 20% inflation, a $2,000 loss in average real incomes for the middle class, 6 million added illegal immigrants, a war on American energy that has caused gas prices to rise by more than 40% to $3.64 a gallon, the collapse of our many major cities, another $6 trillion added to the national debt, the unaffordability of new homes, and the chaos on college campuses.

Dear Annie: My sister “Emily” and I were planning a joint celebration for our parents’ 40th wedding anniversary, but we’ve hit a snag. Emily wants to host a large party with all of our extended family and friends, but I think that a more intimate gathering would be more special and less stressful for our parents. They are both pretty reserved, and I just know they would prefer something smaller.

If 100 can be said to be the new 70, Lieutenant Alfred D. Benjamin of the Army Air Corps’ 384th Bomb Group has to be the expression’s poster boy. Ramrodstraight and sharp as the proverbial tack, the Canton, Massachusetts, centenarian is as smart as the salute he gives as he finishes an interview about his service as a B-17 navigator flying 31 bombing missions over Nazi-occupied Europe in World War II’s final year.

Dear Annie: I’ve been happily married for over 12 years, but lately, I’ve noticed a growing distance between my husband “Bryan” and me. He’s always been a bit of a workaholic, but it’s gotten to the point where even on weekends, he’s either at the office or on his phone dealing with work-related issues. We used to enjoy things like hiking and trying new restaurants together, but now it seems like he has no energy or interest. The times I have been able to convince him to do something for fun, it hasn’t been fun at all because he’s on his phone checking emails the whole time.

Since President Joe Biden was inaugurated, the United States has imported more than $1.5 trillion in goods from the People’s Republic of China, according to the Census Bureau’s publicly released data for the period from February 2021 through March 2024.

My father, Richard, 91, was missing his departed friends and folk, so I suggested planting a memory garden. Close to his heart was Leon Rosenberg, his friend from Randall School to the University of Wisconsin and medical school.

Donald Trump knows how to run a talent show. He’s built a career out of them -- in addition to careers as real estate mogul and president of the United States.