Britain’s veteran television presenter Richard Madeley has a weekly agony uncle column in The Telegraph.
Recently, a 76-year-old lady from Argyll and Bute in Scotland wrote to him complaining about her 73-year-old husband’s smoking and drinking.
Excerpts of the letter and Madeley’s wise reply follow, emphases mine.
Anon writes:
I am 76 and I don’t smoke or drink. My husband is 73: he drinks strong lager every day, he smokes and he takes no exercise whatsoever.
All of this is making me increasingly worried and angry. He is a good man, but I fear that he has deliberately set himself on a path to self-destruction. (Certainly he seems to take no evident pleasure from his habits.) He knows my views on the matter but we have never argued about it.
Read more, and get your daily dose of wisdom.
