Things are mystical down there

Jeffie writes:

Two parter.

One:

I am on a plane to south america, and forgot my camera at home; is there anything I can do?

two:

I am addicted to seeking advice on the internet. Is that goodd or badd?

thanks for nothing, bad advice.

To which I respond:

One: Nope. I don’t think they have cameras where you’re going, and anyway I think things are so mystical down there that if you take pictures everything just shows up as hazy blobs (like ghosts), so don’t worry about it.

Two: In the old days, if a dad would catch his kid smoking, he’d make the kid smoke the whole pack so he’d never want a cigarette again until he was a bit older and his dad didn’t have a say in it. I recommend this sort of strategy with your advice addiction.

Del Shannon Doherty

Del Shannon Doherty wrote in the form of a photo and a song:
Del Shannon Doherty

I can’t embed the song but please listen:
Del Shannon Doherty question

To which I respond: Well Del, did you even go look for her? What if she didn’t run away but was actually abducted and no one even tried to get her back? Make some posters, hit the streets, employ all the detective tactics you know and get your girl back where she belongs – here by you. Stop reading and go!

Everyone’s a racist, if you think about it.

Erin writes: 

To begin-what do i do about an insatiable attraction to watching Bill Cosby adds on youtube about Jello? Is it weird that I prefer green Jello over red Jello? Is this a form of racism? What if this Jello ‘appetite’ leaves me dreaming of swimming in greem Jello, is there a no name brand I should consider to better aid in my personal diversity?
To end-what does racism mean? Am I ‘odd’ or a bad speller because I had to use dictionary.com twice in this post? What does post mean? What’s a dictionary?
And furthermore-should I think about pudding more?

 To which I respond: Look closely at the first half of your first sentence; is this really about Jello? Did you ever consider the possibility that you’re just in love with Bill Cosby? Did you ever consider that being so over-concerned with being a racist is racist? Just eat your jello. Green is the most delicious, no biggie.
 
On another note, urbandictionary.com tends to be more helpful for this type of problem than dictionary.com.
 
 

This calls for a foot race

Tommy writes: i am living in toronto trying to focus on my photography.  but it’s tough making ends meet, and i am not very interested in the ‘starving-artist’ life.  if i go planting it gives me a chance of making enough capitol to get me through the winter, but it takes me away from the studio and the chance to pursue galleries and clients.  should i go planting?  or should i tough out a low income life and focus on producing work?

also, i have a dog who thinks she’s faster than yours.  she has an ego problem.  what should i do?

To which I respond: It’s entirely possible to become successful as an artist while paying the bills. Refer to this article about how T.S. Eliot continued to work as a banker even after his poems earned respect and recognition. When you are poor and starving, you wither away in whatever corner of a shelter you can afford, and gradually become unable to interact with anyone who eats three square meals a day. Pretty soon, the social skills that are so valuable for advancing your career are as emaciated as your ribcage, and things just go downhill from there. You have to get money, and one of the only ways to do that is treeplanting, so you’d probably better go.

As for the dog who thinks she’s faster than mine, there’s only one way to find out: foot race! And you’d better hurry, cause Mona’s getting faster by the day.