New partner won't stop yakking in his ear
The following column was originally published in 2015.
Dear Annie: I am a healthy, active, 68-yearold divorced man, still employed and productive. About a year ago, I met “Caroline,” a pleasant, generous, compatible woman, and have since enjoyed her company on a regular basis. We spent Christmas together in Europe. It was lovely.
Unfortunately, there is one problem that drives me crazy: Caroline is a compulsive talker. It doesn't matter if we're in a movie theatre, we're watching a TV show or
I'm trying to read the newspaper. She just starts yakking in my ear. How do I tell her nicely to shut up for a while?
— Patient But Tired
Dear Patient: Might Caroline have a hearing problem? Is she insecure and believes she has to fill all the silences between you? The next time she does this, you should gently hold her hand and say, “Caroline, it would be nice for us to watch this show together. Can we talk when it's over?” If she persists, you might ask her to see her doctor to have her hearing checked. Later, when you have some peaceful time together, tell her how much you enjoy just spending quiet time in her company .
Dear Annie: You published that silly cost of the 12 days of Christmas and once again, eight maids a milking were being paid $58 — minimum wage for the past three years.
This is so wrong! I milked cows on a dairy farm for 15 years, and let me tell you, it is a skilled occupation. I went to milking school. And it pays more than minimum wage. I was paid $12 when the federal minimum wage was $5.60. And what about the cost of those cows? Why isn't that included? A dairy cow costs at least $1,500, so eight of them — one for each maid — would be $12,000. However, if the gift-giver bought the cows, he would have to hire at least one milkmaid full time.
— Anne in Pennsylvania
Dear Anne: We truly enjoyed your letter. We rarely hear from someone who worked as a milkmaid.
And of course, how much the milkmaids receive each day would depend on how many hours they worked. Also, nothing in the song indicates that the gift-giver included cows. Only the maids-a-milking. Since the song was first published in 1780, we assume the recipient already had cows.
The figures we printed came from the PNC Bank (originally the Provident National Bank in Philadelphia), which calculates maids-a-milking as unskilled labour, and thus they are paid minimum wage.