By Jeff Johnson and Paula Forman

BROTHER’S KEEPER

Dear Short Answers:
Every Christmas my family always gets together. No matter what happened during the year and who is angry at whom. This year, one of my brothers didn’t come. It was the first time this ever happened. But he had a good reason. He was in jail for Breaking & Entering.  It was his girlfriend’s house but he still got busted. I think I am the only one in the family who knows this. Should I tell them so they won’t be mad at him for not showing up?
Supportive Sib

Dear SS:
Let your brother speak for himself. It’s his story.

SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE

Dear Short Answers:
I just found out I have a sexually transmitted disease and I’m 99% sure I know where I got it. Should I tell him and ask him to pay the doctor bill (I don’t have insurance)? But if he’s not the one, then he’ll know I’m cheating on him (I promised him that I wouldn’t). But if I keep quiet, maybe I’ll catch it from him again? What do I do?
Caught

Dear Caught:
If you have a sexually transmitted disease, job one is to tell EVERYONE you might have infected or might have infected you. We are agnostic on payment and the non-medical consequences of cheating.

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS

Dear Short Answers:
My boyfriend proposed to me on Christmas Eve but ever since then he seems to be kind of distant. Do you think he is regretting asking me to marry him?
Very Worried

Dear Worried:
Why worry? Just ask him whassup? Could be jitters, could be wedding plans (notorious stress inducer). But a chat is the only RX we can think of.

NO MORE

Dear Short Answers:
My wife of over 20 years criticizes everything I do. When I buy something from the grocery store, it’s never the right brand or the right size or the right flavor. When I take out the garbage, I didn’t separate the recyclables correctly. When I buy gas, she grills me about which station I went to because the one five miles away is cheaper. It’s all little things. But it drives me crazy. When I mention these things to her she just says “how will I learn to do it right the next time if she doesn’t tell me.” How do I get her to stop?
Had Enuff

Dear Had:
Although some of this could be the chatter of a long relationship, we think this is cause for a GENERAL STRIKE. Tell her, since she knows how to do it better, she should — until such time as you feel you have absorbed all the information she seems to have that you don’t. 

IF YOU’RE GONNA BE TWO-FACED, MAKE ONE OF THEM PRETTY*

Dear Short Answers:
Why are people two faced?
Puzzled

Dear P:
Sometimes it is to spare themselves the consequences of honesty and sometimes it is to spare others — but it is nearly always a technique for avoiding confrontation.

* Marilyn Monroe

Life is complicated.  Short Answers isn’t.

Send a question about whatever is bothering you to [email protected] or go to www.shortanswers.net and a psychologist and sociologist will answer.  A selection of the best questions will be printed every week in KonkLife.

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