From the first week of November straight through to New Year's Day, the questions come roaring into Social Q's -- the advice column I write for the Styles section of the New York Times -- faster than a drunken starlet behind the wheel of a Maserati. And their subject is...

Unlike most advice columnists (and the singer Sade), I am not a Smooth Operator.  Foot-in-mouth is a familiar position for me.  And if I did not write the Social Q's advice column (and new book) for the Styles section of The New York Times, I would surely need...

Every week, in the Sunday Styles section of the New York Times, I answer questions from readers about the sticky situations of their lives: From JDaters who aren't really Jewish (but tell their boyfriends they are), and lap swimmers who are convinced that the folks in the next lane are...

My father killed himself--with a gun.

I was 23 at the time, and lied about it for ten years straight, substituting gentler causes for the grisly scene on my childhood lawn.

"Heart attack," I told my best friend, Lia, when she asked me how he died. I would...