Owl Howl

Dear Dr. Nello:

I've noticed that some of the questions you have gotten lately are downright foolish. They have been a waste of my time to read, and no doubt have been a waste of your time to answer. Can a man of your credentials and busy schedule really have the time to devote to those who need brain transplants or have severe social disorders brought on, no doubt, by being younger members of large families? Tell me are there no minimum standards on your notable blogsite? Please continue to answer all questions on cats and arranged marriages and those sent in by women, mothers or homeschoolers as these are always of general interest.

-- A Wise Old Owl

Dear WOO:

This letter was received a while back, but due to an evil email snafu we were unable to answer it until now. As I'm sure you're quite aware, the quality of our posts has improved since you sent this. It is true, for a short while there we were putting forth subpar posts. (Then again, if you're below par in golf, doesn't that mean you're scoring well?) For confidentiality reasons, I can't point out particular posts that we grudgingly replied to, but I'm sure you can pick them out.

When I say our posts were below average, though, I must also point out while they were below average for this blog, they were far superior to most other advice columns.

At that time, we were going through an email shortage. We are actually investigating this: recent evidence indicates that one of our competitors (we'll call her "Dear Flabby") actually hacked into our account and was blocking incoming messages. Due to the shortage, we were forced to revisit old rejected emails. As these emails had less interesting topics, the replies were unfortunately also less interesting.

But this was a long time ago. Since then our email account has been flooded with emails and we're doing our best just to keep up! At your request, I will continue to deny emails from homeschooling mothers with cats.

-- Dr. N