Dear Abby and the Old Maid From Duluth Limerick...

As I was rummaging around in a box of old newspaper columns, I came across a letter from Dear Abby. Are you a follower of Dear Abby? Abby is the name of the syndicated advice columnist appearing in newspapers all over the country. Some of you are old enough to remember the originator of that column–the mother of the current Abby, Pauline Phillips. The senior Phillips penned the name Abigail Van Buren and began writing her very successful column in 1956. After she died, her daughter took over–and the rest is history.

Pauline Phillips, the then Dear Abby, wrote to me in 1992 to thank me for allowing her to reprint part of a column I wrote in response to a spin she had in her column with limericks and the Old Maid From Duluth limerick. She followed up the hype by reprinting part of my writing in her column. Abby shocked my wife one afternoon when she called my home trying to reach me for permission to use my column. Abby did a lot of TV and radio and her voice was very unique and quite well known. She announced herself on the phone by saying, "Hello this is Dear Abby." My wife thought she was someone playing a trick at first...but she was legit.

You can read that old Dear Abby newspaper column printed in newspapers across the nation by clicking HERE and you'll also witness my outrageous claim to fame in the advice world. The current Dear Abby maintains a web site and continues writing her advice column in newspapers everywhere.