Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk turns anthropologist of experience in his new work, “The Museum of Innocence.” He does this by encapsulating the world’s beauty, childhood and happiness with a master writer’s control of an obsessive personality.
Herbert Lawrence Block is the reason Tom Toles no longer draws editorial cartoons just outside my office, although when I peer over the top of my computer I can still see his old drawing table and the signature drawing lamp he depicts in the lower corner of his cartoons.
Dear Miss Manners: A guest, who, like me, is a middle-aged bachelor (well, I am perhaps a tad beyond middle age, but never mind that) returned this summer—essentially homeless after many years out of the country—to undergo surgeries from which he is now recovering. He does not require in-home medical assistance, but is under doctor’s orders to avoid his usual athletic activities for a while, and he cannot drive now.
Dear Carolyn: I’m involved with a married man, which (1) I didn’t know until after we became involved, and (2) breaks one of my core values—so even though I love his company (we’re no longer physically involved), I hate that I’m in the middle of someone else’s marriage.
Updated: 11/08/09 8:28 AM
Dear Abby: Several years ago, I realized that my mother’s eyesight and reflexes weren’t what they once were, but she insisted on remaining behind the wheel. She was afraid of losing her independence if she gave up driving. Then she had a traffic accident that shook her enough to make her finally relinquish her keys, but she wasn’t happy about it.
