Dear Queenie,
I’m a single woman living alone in a house in a nice neighbourhood. Sometimes a workman or other stranger will ask me if I live alone.
Queenie, how do I answer a question like that?—Spinster
Dear Spinster,
It used to be safe to tell the truth in such cases, just as it used not to be necessary to keep your doors closed and locked all the time, but times have changed. Nowadays, it would be better to lie, to tell the questioner you live with a boyfriend or male relative.
Better yet, it would be a good idea to have a dog (or more than one dog) – preferably large and aggressive-looking – in the house or roaming your yard and point it/them out to your interrogator.
