ArticleIP_3558.txt

   
   
      
         
            

            
               Drawing upon her rich
experience of life, Prudence (Prudie to her friends) responds to questions
about manners, personal relations, politics, and other subjects. Please send
your questions for publication to [email protected]. Queries should not exceed 200 words in
length. Please indicate how you wish your letter to be signed, preferably
including your location.
            

            
               
                  Dear
Prudie,
               
            

            
               Does working at
Slate allow you to be critical of parent company Microsoft?
            

            
               Journalistically, your
answer almost has to be "yes," but I've noticed an underlying love for all
things rendered unto Gates. What is your opinion of the antitrust suit?
            

            
               If you're pro-MS you're a
sell out, and if you're anti-MS you'll prove us skeptics wrong.
            

            
               Don't
you hate how that forced decision-making works? Kinda like Windows.
            

            
               --Monopolistically
yours,Mr. Free Parking
            

            Dear
Mr.,

            Of course
Prudie is allowed to be critical of the parent company--should she ever find
something of which to be critical. As for the antitrust matter, Prudie is
always in favor of trust.

            --Prudie, Microsoftly

            
               
                  Dear
Prudie,
               
            

            
               I have started dating a
guy with wonderful qualities and think he has real possibilities for the long
haul. There is only one glitch. (Isn't there always?)
            

            
               He is almost
pathologically cheap when it comes to eating out. To make this less of an
issue, I have taken to cooking dinner for us at my place or drumming up
"occasions" for dinner to be my treat.
            

            
               I am starting to wonder,
however, about his choice of restaurants leaning heavily to pizzerias and
joints specializing in burgers. What do you think of all this?
            

            
               We are
both in our mid-20s and have good jobs.
            

            
               --No Four-Star
Florence
            

            Dear No
Four,

            Prudie knows the type. You've
allied yourself with the kind of man who will always opt for the Road Kill
Cafe.

            There are many ways to
approach this. You can try to get to the bottom of his aversion to better
restaurants. (Perhaps he was traumatized at Le Cirque 2000?) You can laugh it
off if he is in all other ways wonderful. You can let him know you would love a
slight modification of this particular behavior.

            But bear in mind that women
are not reform schools. There is an old saying, "A woman hooks up with a man
expecting he will change, but he doesn't. A man hooks up with a woman expecting
she won't change, and she does."

            Prudie
thinks, overall, that if this is the young lad's only negative, you should
learn to roll with the punches (or burgers, in your case) and hope that his
maturing will ameliorate your problem.

            --Prudie,
gustatorially

            
               
                  Dear
Prudie,
               
            

            
               Now
that I am moving in with my significant other, I don't know what to do with the
mementos (mostly notes) of a torrid affair I had after the current significant
other and I became involved but before we were very serious. I don't want her
to find about the affair. I also don't want to get rid of the notes yet. What
to do?
            

            
               --Anywhere in
Europe
            

            Dear
Any,

            Prudie
thinks you are wise not to stash the mash notes in your sock drawer. Discovery
would not be healthy for your current relationship. Since you don't wish to
discard the sizzlers, you have the option of storing them in a safety deposit
box. If there is a large quantity of billets-doux, then a storage bin at an
appropriate facility would do. A friend is also an option, but Prudie thinks
not a great one ... too much room for errors of different kinds. Prudie once
housed the jewelry of a divorcing friend and was very uncomfortable.

            --Prudie, secretively

            

               
                  Prudie,
               
            

            
               Harking back to your
letter from the man whose wife insisted on writing notes rather than talking,
you wrote, "Dear I, Prudie will pass up the chance to point out what would be
seen by some as your good fortune. A more common question might surely be 'How
can I get her to stop talking?' "
            

            
               Oh,
dear. While claiming to "pass up the chance," you take it. Is that
polite?
            

            
               --Mike,
inquiringly
            

            Dear
Mike,

            Prudie
does not think the quote you mention is polite or impolite, but simply a
journalistic conceit to state the obvious. Actually, it was a quip pro quo--a
retort Prudie could not resist. (And she definitely didn't mean to sound like a
traitor to her gender.)

            --Prudie, politely