The Only Advice You Will Ever Need

I have been a follower of Slate's advice columnist Dear Prudence for five-plus years because the current writer, Emily Yoffe, is funny, unpretentious, reasonable, and, above all else, a great writer. Yoffe also writes a semi-regular feature on Slate called "Human Guinea Pig", where she takes reader suggestions for strange activities or hobbies and tackles them (somewhat) fearlessly. Like the time she became a drag king:

Image borrowed from Yoffe's article "Man Made: My short life as a drag king"

How can you not like that smile? That perfectly creepy smile...

The reason I come back again and again to Yoffe's writings is the casual, yet calculated, manner in which she writes. In an op-ed piece for The Washington Post back in 2007 she questioned the fear that Al Gore's campaign against global warming was generating. She opens her piece with an anecdote about sitting in the outdoor patio of a restaurant in January when her friend said "This terrifies me." Yoffe convincingly points out the absurdity of being terrified of beautiful weather in January (she lives and works in DC). Yoffe does not question the validity of Global Warming; she merely writes that the fear and anxiety people experience, mostly children, is not sustainable. Yoffe is attacking the fear-mongering Gore is perpetuating, not the message itself. Well, a little bit of the message toward the end, but mostly the delivery.

The casual way in which she sets up her piece belies the seriousness of the rest of the article, and that is what make it interesting. Yoffe can present the gravest of concepts in a relatively light and easily understandable manner. She does make references to her anecdote later in the piece as well as a few sarcastic comments. Her funniest:

"Thanks to all the heat-mongering, it's supposed to be a sign I'm in denial because I refuse to trust a weather prediction for August 2080, when no one can offer me one for August 2008 (or 2007 for that matter)."

Agree with her or not, Yoffe writes in a casual, yet organized, way. She uses sarcasm in many of her "Dear Prudence" columns yet doesn't rely on that humorous cynicism. No, her answers are well thought out and, usually, on point.