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‘Dear Abby’ finally stops giving advice
’Dear Abby’ advice columnist dies at age 94
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Pauline Friedman Phillips, who as Dear Abby dispensed snappy, sometimes saucy advice on love, marriage and meddling mothers-in-law to millions of newspaper readers around the world and opened the way for the likes of Dr. Ruth, Dr. Phil and Oprah, has died. She was 94.
Phillips died Wednesday in Minneapolis after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, said Gene Willis, a publicist for the Universal Uclick syndicate.
“My mother leaves very big high heels to fill with a legacy of compassion, commitment and positive social change,” her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now writes the column, said in a statement.
Private funeral services were held Thursday, Willis said.
The long-running “Dear Abby” column first appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1956. Mother and daughter started sharing the byline in 2000, and Jeanne Phillips took over in 2002, when the family announced Pauline Phillips had Alzheimer’s disease.
Pauline Phillips wrote under the name Abigail Van Buren. Her column competed for decades with the advice of Ann Landers, written by her twin sister, Esther Friedman Lederer, who died in 2002. Their relationship was stormy in their early adult years, but they later regained the closeness they had growing up in Sioux City, Iowa.
The two columns differed in style. Ann Landers responded to questioners with homey, detailed advice. Abby’s replies were often flippant and occasionally risqué one-liners, like some of those collected for her 1981 book “The Best of Dear Abby.”
jeckelmyhyde
January 18th, 2013
Dear Abby,
I am a 54 year old small business owner who is being taxed into oblivion, and regulated to the point that I need to hire 2 additional employees just to handle the additional paperwork the government is demanding. My insurance cost have gone through the roof and I am finding it very difficult to afford the cost of keeping the employees I currently have. Can you give me some advice about what I can get my wife for her birthday.
Frustrated from Topeka
Jerry Manderin
January 18th, 2013
Dear Abby,
I have recently lost someone very dear to me. For the first time in my life I am experiencing the hurt, the pain, and the loss that accompanies losing someone. I can’t stop the tears. I am in desperate need of some advice on how to deal with death. Do you have any sugggest…
Wait. Nevermind.
Sorry In Duluth
Saxindacity
January 18th, 2013
An old favorite song –
John Prine Dear Abby Lyrics
Dear abby, dear abby …
My feet are too long
My hair’s falling out and my rights are all wrong
My friends they all tell me that I’ve no friends at all
Won’t you write me a letter, won’t you give me a call
Signed bewildered
Bewildered, bewildered…
Chorus:
You have no complaint
You are what your are and you ain’t what you ain’t
So listen up buster, and listen up good
Stop wishing for bad luck and knocking on wood
Dear abby, dear abby…
My fountain pen leaks
My wife hollers at me and my kids are all freaks
Every side I get up on is the wrong side of bed
If it weren’t so expensive I’d wish I were dead
Signed unhappy
Unhappy, unhappy…
Repeat chorus
Dear abby, dear abby…
You won’t believe this
But my stomach makes noises whenever I kiss
My girlfriend tells me it’s all in my head
But my stomach tells me to write you instead
Signed noise-maker
Noise-maker, noise-maker
Repeat chorus
Dear abby, dear abby…
Well I never thought
That me and my girlfriend would ever get caught
We were sitting in the back seat just shooting the breeze
With her hair up in curlers and her pants to her knees
Signed just married
Just married, just married…
Repeat chorus
Left Coast Dan
January 18th, 2013
Nation Descends Into Utter Moral Chaos Following ‘Dear Abby’ Writer’s Death:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/nation-descends-into-utter-moral-chaos-following-d,30946/
jeckelmyhyde
January 18th, 2013
@Saxindacity
Good call, and it is a Big Ole Goofy World.
Billy Fuster
January 18th, 2013
Dear Frustrated,
Quit paying taxes and following regulations.
Abby
bitterclinger
January 18th, 2013
One of my girlfiends and I used to imitate Dear “Abey” (as Archie Bunker used to call her) when we were roaming the halls of our Catholic Highschool in the late ’70s.
Since Abey had ill-fitting dentures, she often sounded like Daffy Duck with lockjaw. One of our favorite cornball lines of hers was: Thanksh for a dandy day brightener!
Ann Landers
January 18th, 2013
Hahahaha! About time!
I’d be danshing on your grave if I could. You bitsch!
Mom always like you besht!
And by the way, your advishe shucked!
Ya sure
January 18th, 2013
Minimize her all you want, but I’d take her over Oprah, Jerry Springer, Maury, etc, etc, AD NAUSEUM…. … in a NY minute.
Some people actually NEED a dose of her common sense.
RIP, Ms. Phillips.
jeckelmyhyde
January 18th, 2013
Dear Abby,
I took your advice and stopped paying my taxes and deposited all the government regulations into the shredder. I was able to save some money by not having to do the additional new hires and I was feeling much better about my company and its future. I am writing you today from Levenworth Kansas to ask if you know of any good banana pudding recipes I can share with my new cellmate Clarence from Odessa.
Frustrated formally from Topeka
IMPEACH Obama
January 18th, 2013
If Dear Abby, could hear me, I’d seek her advise on how we can get that communist out of the WH.
One by one, nearly all now admit that he is what he is, but no one seems willing to summon the fortitude to get that unqualified enemy domestic, out of the seat of power.
I know you won’t go out on a limb on religion, Abby, but could you please PRAY for our country nonetheless?
Tim
January 18th, 2013
Dear Abby,
RIP
Blink
January 18th, 2013
Saxindacity. Ya beat me to it. The John Prine song was the first thing I though of when I heard of Abby’s passing. A live recording
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mqDsuhnnRk .
Abby an old friend discovered in an Italian newspaper.
The Finisher
January 18th, 2013
Dear Abby,
My advice…. rest in peace.
the aardvark
January 18th, 2013
Ya just gotta love John Prine singing Dear Abby, one of my favorite John Prine songs.
the aardvark
January 18th, 2013
Best John Prine song ever, In Spite Of Ourselves with Iris Dement. Great song and great video.