Mr. Advice Guy #9 - April 2, 2008

Dear Mr. Advice Guy,
As a fellow veteran of the advice-giving industry, I find myself in need of some advice. I figured there was no one better to turn to. I have a few questions. How do you come up with good advice every week? How do you keep your column fresh? Don’t you find it hard to keep giving people advice when you don’t get to hear whether or not your advice helped at all? And how do you ensure a steady flow of interesting letters?
Dear Abby

Dear Dear Abby,
Wow, those are some tough questions. Let’s see if I can handle them all.
First of all, when you’ve been in the game as long as I have, giving advice is like breathing. It’s not a matter of coming up with good advice. I simply react to each question the only way I know how.
As far as keeping my column fresh, I have a fairly simple routine I follow. I come up with an ‘80s or ‘90s reference of some kind, be it to a movie, a TV show or a song, and then I work from there.
The kids love outdated references.
I can only assume that my advice is helping people. If you don’t have confidence in your advice, you’re in the wrong business.
You got me with the last one. This has been by far the hardest part of the column for me. At least you have an entire continent to draw letters from. I only have one little campus.