Since I didn't want to leave everyone I've met and interacted with here wondering who the hell all these people were and when did I become an advice columnist...

I joined Open Salon with a particular purpose in mind. I had a thread on Salon's TT called Arlene Explains It All wherein I dispensed advice. Silly advice, tech advice, relationship advice. I would tackle anything and everything they threw at me. I enjoyed this role as know-it-all immensely. However, it became increasingly apparent that some of the questions were the kind that needed a bit more anonymity than an internet forum, even one that was pay for play,  could  provide. Especially since the questioners could be easily identified if someone were to bother to search on their user name and connect the dots. 

I wasn't sure what to do about this. Someone suggested a blog. I resisted that suggestion. I didn't want a damn blog. Everyone has a damn blog and I was not going to be a lemming.

Then, as often happens, I changed my mind about the blog. But I never got around to actually setting one up. The thread has lain there mouldering while I twiddled my thumbs and didn't put up a blog.

One day I got an invite to Open Salon in my email. Aha! I thought,  I can finally do my advice thing! It is like a gift from the gods! I meant to and then Salon handed me an invitation to create a blog! 

 The problem was it was a private beta test and so not exactly what I had in mind and not friendly to my lurker advice seekers. So I bided my time and used the blog for other things. Which it turns out I quite like doing. So now the blog has a dual purpose. I will do the advice thing and still do the mostly inane pieces that I have been doing. 

Here's how it is going to work:

I will give advice on Tuesdays and Fridays. Anyone who wants to ask a question can either message me here or email me at arlene.l.green@gmail.com.  If you choose to be anonymous the signal for that is to sign your questions with some Ann Lander-eque name such as Baffled in Buffalo.

I have already announced on the TT thread that this is how it is going to be and have a few questions lined up as of this evening to answer on Friday. If you see a bunch of names in the comments that you don't recognize, it isn't an invasion. It is the people that I have argued with, cried with, posted with and generally kept myself entertained and sane with for the last 10+ years. They are a good bunch.