Sedaratives: Janeane Garofalo

Dear Sedaratives,

My boyfriend hasn’t had a job in three years. But he’s a pretty boy, very easy on the eyes. Is it worth keeping him around anyway, like a lamp that’s long since stopped working but you don’t throw away because it goes with the furniture?

Susan M.
Richmond, Va.

Dear Susan,

The lamp provides you with a convenient place to hang damp laundry. The boy without a job does not. The lamp complements your home’s decor. The lad on the dole does not. If you are able to fuck the lamp, then you must donate the boy to the Salvation Army. Get a receipt for tax purposes.

Janeane

Dear Sedaratives,

I’m thinking about getting a tattoo, but I want something that isn’t quite such an urban hipster cliché. Maybe something literary? Is having a paragraph from Atlas Shrugged tattooed on my back cool and unique, or just pretentious? I’m not sure.

Julia Rockson
Atlanta, Ga.

Dear Julia,

It is only “cool” if you allow room for an additional tattoo that decries the cynical bastardization of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of rational self-interest by the conservative think-tank movement.

Janeane

Dear Sedaratives,

I just had a dream where a large bear started attacking me because I was in a prison tower and it was angry. I am concerned because in the dream, someone I don’t know brought the bear to my house in a plastic igloo and said, “Look, it’s my pet!” Is this an omen?

Liz, age thirteen

Dear Liz,

Do you mean igloo in the sense of a dome-shaped Eskimo dwelling, or a square-shaped beer container?

Janeane

Dear Sedaratives,

I know there’s a difference between stalking and being romantically attentive, but I can’t figure out what it is. Please advise.

Regards,
Paul
St. Louis, Mo.

Dear Paul,

It all depends on how good-looking you are.“Stalkers” tend to be similar in appearance to people who saw Cats on Broadway more than forty-seven times.“Romantically attentive” describes people who don’t look like they’ve seen Cats on Broadway more than forty-seven times.

Janeane

Dear Sedaratives,

My hair is starting to go gray,but I can’t tell if it makes me look distinguished or like one of those hippie ladies who wear sandals and teach pottery classes.What should I do?

Mrs. Larkin

Dear Mrs. Larkin,

If you don’t have the silver fox appeal of a James Brolin or a Fionnula Flanagan, then you must work in concert with destiny. Straddle that pottery wheel like you mean it!

Janeane

Dear Sedaratives,

I’ve been a smoker for thirty years, and...