Prudence and public input

I’m loving the Dear Prudence column in Slate, which I discovered by accident. She’s got at least as much sense as Sars and a good dose of snark too, but with a bit more “Miss Manners” style and a touch of the “old-fashioned politeness” Ann Landers/Dear Abby tone.

I find it funny and realistic that she so often tells people to get therapy. Most advice columnists shy away from that except when it’s obviously needed, but usually if you have enough problems that you’re writing to an advice column, you either know the answer to the question and just wish someone would tell you it’s okay, or you need therapy. :-)

Not so much loving: spending two hours at the Sunnyvale BPAC meeting before getting to do public comment. I appreciate the people there are very dedicated and they have certain rules they have to follow about procedure. And I also appreciate that warm bodies are respected more than cold emails, and that sometimes to give input on things I care about, I have to suck it up and wait.

But it didn’t leave me wanting to try any more forays into personal public comment. The City Council meeting may be the more important one, but it’ll go on for hours and half the people there will just infuriate me with what they’re saying. Waiting for two hours without dinner while some wonderful and dedicated citizens (and I mean that, but oy, two hours?) discuss wording points is time-consuming enough for me for now.

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