From My Orbit Oct. 15

Original letters can be found here.

LW#1: Okay, not that it's any of your boyfriend's business whether or not you've had "another partner," but if you said you had, but not who, would your boyfriend care and why? Did you market yourself as a virgin to him? Because other than that (and potential STDs), the romance you had is your own business.

If you think, after a year of dating, that telling your boyfriend you had a sexual relationship with a man who is now your current grad school adviser, that your bf would get him into trouble, then maybe this bf isn't all he is cracked up to be. I will also add that this prof is probably not all he is cracked up to be, either. He shouldn't have slept with you as a student, and he knows being your adviser is pretty sketchy to boot.

LW#2: I thought the grandma's nickname was of the grandmother's choosing. Make "My Nana! My Grandma!" pick a side. Maybe she'll be granny. Or Mee-maw, if you're southern.

In the meantime, your brother sounds like a moron. If you think he's upset over his kid being confused by nana v grandma, do some Piaget-style experiments where you have two different glasses with the same amount of liquid in them. The glass that is taller and thinner will always appear to have more to this kid, even if you pour liquid from the smaller glass into the taller glass. I did this trick with a 3-y-o cousin one time and my uncle about climbed the walls trying to make her see that there was the same amount of milk in each glass. But it was something she just could not see at all because that is how a kid's brain works. Good times. I think she's a National Merit Finalist or something this year, so you know they grow out of this stuff.

LW#3: The stepmother sounds gross, and if I were in your shoes I'd keep my mouth shut about her and have the bf do the same. Trust, there are probably already arguments in the house between her, the brother and the father about how much money is going to be spent on the brother's education and how on the hook daddy is for his other two kids. Instead, be someone who encourages the little brother to do whatever is right for him.

People like the stepmother, who may not have revealed her whole self to her husband, considering the suddenness of their nuptials, will eventually out themselves as selfish pain in the asses. Her bitching about money will surely not end here. The father will then have a choice: Does he want to become part of that selfish, me-first attitude and they can be a miserable, icky couple together? Or will it bother him enough to ditch her?

LW#4: Jesus. They made a buck off a bachelorette party? 60 of them per person? What kind of sociopaths are they?

I suppose if you want to call them and say, "Hey, people are talking, and I suggest you either provide itemized reciepts or the cash everyone feels they deserve back," you can. After all, you live out of town, you don't really know them or have to deal with them. Just saying, "people are talking" has a kind of electrifying effect on the conscience.

Even if you can't get your $60 back, these women will have to deal with being known in their own circle as greedy little orcs for the rest of time (and when word gets back to the bride, as it will, they will be the ones who put the tarnish on her wedding). And that seems to be a special kind of punishment not worth the takings, doesn't it?

Also, this seems like it could be a really good episode of Judge Judy. Think about it.