From a longtime friend of my mother’s:
Dear Abby,
My husband has a long record of money problems — he runs up huge credit card bills. At the end of the month, if I try to pay them off, he shouts at me, saying I am stealing his money. He says to pay the minimum amount and let our kids worry about the rest since they will have jobs in the future, but already we can hardly keep up with the interest amounts alone.
He has been so arrogant and abusive toward our neighbors that most of them no longer speak to us. The few that do are an odd bunch, to whom he has been giving a lot of expensive gifts, running up our bills even more. Also, he has gotten religious in a big way, although I don’t quite understand it. One week he hangs out with Catholics and the next with people who say the Pope is the Anti-Christ.
And now he has been going to the gym an awful lot and is into wearing uniforms and cowboy outfits — I just hate to think what that means. Finally, the last straw. He’s demanding that before anyone can be in the same room with him, they must sign a loyalty oath. It’s just so horribly creepy!
Can you help?
Signed, Lost in DC
DEAR LOST:
Stop whining, Laura. You can divorce the jerk any time you want. The rest of us are stuck with him for four more years!