Dan, So what’s up with advice columnists and the Gettysburg Address this week?

In your reply to Congenital Invert on October 30 you said, “But the world will little note, nor long remember the names you came up with for your long list of impossible and/or improbable sex acts.”

I also read “Dear Prudence” at Slate.com. In her October 30th column, in response to Boo Hoo (whose husband chose to go hunting instead of taking his 2 and 4 year old children trick-or-treating) she says, “You’re right, at ages 2 and 4, your children will little note nor long remember that they had to face this year’s trick-or-treating without their father.”

I enjoy the references to other writer’s works, and in these cases you both used Lincoln’s words to good effect. (Although I do think the contrast you made between the Gettysburg address and sex acts was much more striking.) But I’m just curious: Was this a coincidence, or is it Abraham Lincoln week for advice columnists? Do I need to look up Carolyn Hax’s columns this week to see if she’s received letters from anyone four score and seven years of age?

Just Wondering

Well, the secret is out—I’m writing both “Savage Love” and “Dear Prudence.” Want more proof? Check out the first letter in Prudence’s October 30th column, Sloggers. Case closed.