Dear Queenie,
A friend of mine is all hyped up about fitness and exercise and she’s been taking classes in martial arts. The last time we were together she started getting on at me about how I’m too flabby and obviously I have a hormone imbalance and I’m dangerously obese because I have a body mass index of almost 40.
This got me worried so I went to my family doctor and he ran some tests and said my BMI is only about 25 and I should lose about 20 pounds but that was all that was wrong with me.
Queenie, how could my friend be so wrong?—Disgusted
Dear Disgusted,
I would guess that your friend is some kind of self-important fitness nut who maybe has read a few books or gone online on the subject and she thinks she knows everything – but does not. For example, even a physician cannot diagnose a hormone imbalance without running certain specific laboratory tests.
I suggest you ignore her remarks, or laugh in her face and offer to take her with you to the doctor so he can give her some much needed education. Or you can find a more compatible friend(s).
Dear Queenie,
My brother drinks too much and often drives when he has been drinking. I will not get in a car with him or let him take my children anywhere because I never know when he is drunk or if he will start drinking somewhere along the way. That means they hardly ever get to see him.
My parents think I am being mean to him and the kids to keep them apart because he doesn’t have any kids of his own and he does love mine, but that wouldn’t stop him from putting them in danger by driving drunk because he thinks it’s no big thing.
Queenie, how can I make them understand?—Alcoholic’s sister
Dear Queenie,
My married brother has been cheating on his wife and the whole family knows about it except her. He expects us all to keep quiet about it because we’re his family and “blood is thicker than water.”
Queenie, is he right or should someone tell her?—Adulterer’s sister
Dear Queenie,
After my mother died my father got a condolence card from one of my brother’s ex-girlfriends. Now he says they have become good friends and he can really talk to her.
My brother and I don’t like this. We think we should be the ones to comfort him in his time of grief and him to comfort us.
Queenie, are we being unreasonable?—In Mourning
Dear Queenie,
My wife knows I take Viagra and when I went off-island on a business trip she insisted that I not take the Viagra with me. What she doesn’t know is that I don’t always need it.
Queenie, should I tell her?—Undecided husband
