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Canadian author Lynn Coady has an opinion. This is her edgy but hilarious online advice column exclusive to DearAnyone.com.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Vol. 1(2) - Fools, Drunks and Neurotics

Coady of Conduct:

Not so long ago, I met this guy and he seems to be the man of my dreams. He's handsome, has a secure future, likes me and would like to introduce me to his family. Perfect right?

Here's the tricky part... he's in some "problem" right now, because he's on a trip in a foreign country and doesn't have enough money to pay for the hotel. So he asked me to help him. My gut instinct tells me not to trust so blindly. After all, I hardly know him.

So far he seems honest with me, but I caught him in a mix-up that could show me he's a liar. He said his sisters were Amanda (25) and Jennie (21). Then on another occasion (when I asked to tell me more about them) he said that Jennie (25) was in New York studying while Amanda (21) lived with his mother. How could someone that's "honest" mistake the ages of his "sisters"?

Fool in a Fantasy World

This is an easy one, in large part because you've answered your own question in your signature. So this guy has a "secure future" but he can't pay for his own hotel room? You hardly know him, you haven't even met his parents, yet of all the people in his life, he turns to you, a woman he's just started dating, to bail him out of a financial crisis? No. And no again. Jennie and Amanda and their fluctuating ages are what we in the advice column business call "red flags." A red flag followed by a request for money is what we call a "hammer to the head."