Let bitter brother embrace the dark side solo

Maureen Scurfield Miss Lonelyhearts
By: Maureen Scurfield Posted:

Advertisement

Advertise with us

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My older brother, who’s 35, won’t let me enjoy Star Wars anymore, and he’s driving me nuts.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/10/2023 (1055 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My older brother, who’s 35, won’t let me enjoy Star Wars anymore, and he’s driving me nuts.

I’m his 31-year-old sister and I love watching all the new Star Wars movies and shows but I can’t so much as mention them around him without getting another self-righteous rant about how Disney is ruining Star Wars by flooding the market with it.

He used to love Star Wars himself but now he refuses to look at it and has to spout his blah-blah-blah criticism. I miss the times when we used to bond over Star Wars, but now it’s basically a taboo subject, unless I want to endure his negativity.

Who cares? If I like something, I just like it. Why must he pick it apart?

— Upset Star Wars Lover, Tuxedo

Dear Upset: The disenchantment with Star Wars was much like a relationship breakup for your brother. He feels betrayed and bitter because he used to be “in love” with the original Star Wars movies, and now Disney has changed it beyond his recognition.

Just like family members learn to avoid bringing up the past loves of their relatives, you have to let your big brother bitterly leave the original Star Wars fan club, and you can secretly enjoy its new incarnation. If you do some investigation, you‘ll be able to join new fan groups who love the new Star Wars, and you can start conversing with them. Just don’t bring them up with your brother!

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: A new neighbour just moved in recently, and we got talking while raking our lawns and garden patches. This is Winnipeg and everybody’s connected — it turns out she’s the sister of my gay auntie’s new younger lover, and they’ve begun living together!

My next-door neighbour seems to be a nice, level-headed person with a husband and one young child, so I believe her when she says this “newly minted” couple hasn’t got a prayer when her sister’s religious family finds out about them. They are deeply old-fashioned, and will get involved “to save their daughter’s soul.”

Yup, I definitely got an earful in one lawn-raking.

She is a really nice lady and a new friend, but what do I do with this worrisome information? Do I need to give my aunt a heads-up?

— Nervous for Her! St. James

Dear Nervous: It could be the new couple is expecting trouble coming down the pike very soon. When the out-of-town family blows up, and drives in to try to save the day, your aunt and her partner will need all the help they can get. They’d no doubt appreciate supportive friends and relatives who live nearby.

So make the connection now! Visit your aunt at her place soon and get to know her new love. You might even go there the first time with your new neighbour, so she can visit her sister.

Feeling awkward about just dropping in? Bringing a fall gift from the garden works any old time!

Family closeness and neighbourliness are making a comeback after a couple years of lonely pandemic living. We need each other as humans and can benefit greatly from helping each other out.

Let your aunt and her partner know they are not alone, and that friendship and support are just a few minutes away.

Please send your questions and comments to lovecoach@hotmail.com or Miss Lonelyhearts c/o the Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6.

Maureen Scurfield

Maureen Scurfield
Advice columnist

Maureen Scurfield writes the Miss Lonelyhearts advice column.

   Read full biography

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Maureen Scurfield

Maureen Scurfield
Advice columnist

Maureen Scurfield writes the Miss Lonelyhearts advice column.

   Read full biography

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Related Articles

Reaction to sexy snapshot exposes trust issues Work out legal plan to avoid angry confrontations Set some ground rules for risqué wrestling Killjoy mate undermining more than holiday cheer Don’t let brother’s date play manipulative games Set some ground rules for the pumpkin patch Stow away the ‘ghosts’ and let new wife take lead Shock a sure sign it’s best for you to move on Go out as a dynamic duo, not a trite tandem Time for cards on the table with gambling ma

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Report Error Submit a Tip

Advertisement

Learn more about Winnipeg Free Press Advertising solutions

More Stories

Emerson Kidd had to return to Winnipeg from Texas in March as the pandemic forced her school to close its dorms. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Local high school, collegiate athletes trying to focus on future, not dwell on season past

Taylor Allen 15 minute read Preview

Local high school, collegiate athletes trying to focus on future, not dwell on season past

Taylor Allen 15 minute read Friday, Jul. 3, 2020

Nobody can relate to what today’s young athletes are going through.

Imagine entering your final year of high school and being told at the last minute that you can’t compete for a provincial championship. Or what it feels like to be the kid who made sacrifices their entire life to one day earn a scholarship and when that time comes, they’re informed the next season might not happen and their university experience will consist of them sitting behind a computer screen, taking online classes.

The realities in today’s pandemic world are unprecedented. No coach or parent can look at these athletes and say, ‘I know what you’re going through.’ Neither can Adrienne Leslie-Toogood, the director of sport psychology for the Canadian Sport Centre Manitoba. But the former University of Manitoba Bisons shooting guard said it’s important for athletes to not pretend that everything is fine during these challenging times.

“I think that bitter ends up resulting down the road if you don’t allow yourself to feel deeply. That’s the one thing we know in sport for sure, that we feel deeply. We celebrate, we work hard, we invest our heart and soul, so things can hurt pretty bad, too,” Leslie-Toogood says.

Read
Friday, Jul. 3, 2020
JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Winnipeg Olympic hopeful Wog a natural in the pool

Mike Sawatzky 13 minute read Preview

Winnipeg Olympic hopeful Wog a natural in the pool

Mike Sawatzky 13 minute read Thursday, Jun. 3, 2021

Vlastik Cerny has overseen hundreds of swimmers in his more than four decades in the sport. Occasionally, a special talent emerges.

Kelsey Wog was nine years old in 2007, just getting her start in the sport when she made just such an impression.

"She just pushed off the wall and she just glided right across the pool and I said, 'Well, there's a fish right there,'" recalls Cerny, the long-time coach of the University of Manitoba swim team. "I've been in the sport basically my whole life and you recognize that kind of gift right away."

It's a talent that allows Wog to remain at the surface of the water with little effort that caught Cerny's eye that day. And it's the basis of a skill set that should put her in contention for a podium finish in her signature event, the women's 200-metre breaststroke, at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo next month.

Read
Thursday, Jun. 3, 2021
CHEYANNE MUMPHREY / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES

Back to school means increased costs for parents, post-secondary students

Joel Schlesinger 5 minute read Preview

Back to school means increased costs for parents, post-secondary students

Joel Schlesinger 5 minute read Yesterday at 2:02 AM CDT

In the words of advice for students from Thornton Melon: “It’s rough out there. Move back in with your parents.”

As comedian Rodney Dangerfield’s character alluded to in the 1986 comedy Back to School, it is indeed a tough financial environment as students head back to the classroom in 2026.

A Capital One Canada survey found families are struggling with costs, with nearly six in 10 parents surveyed stating back-to-school expenses are higher than expected.

It’s not just tuition, new clothes and supplies. Extracurricular activities — like hockey, figure skating, ringette, soccer, dance, etc. — also ramp up, involving tuition-sized payments.

Read
Yesterday at 2:02 AM CDT
JESSE BOILY / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS From left, Leanne Lucas, Lindsay Somers and Sarah Wilton have a warm-up dance before their run at The Forks. Somers started her Learn to Run outdoor programs in 2017.

Run to feel good and connect with city

Sabrina Carnevale 9 minute read Preview

Run to feel good and connect with city

Sabrina Carnevale 9 minute read Monday, Sep. 28, 2020

I can’t do it. This is hard. My legs feel so heavy. It’s too far.

Welcome to the mental script of many runners, at least once in a while.

A lot of people have a good idea of what running should look like. Keeping a consistent pace, trying to beat your time or going a certain distance. But that’s not the case for everyone.

Running is more than exercise — it’s a way to unplug, get outside and separate your headspace from the rest of your daily routine. It leaves you feeling accomplished and energized for the rest of the day. For many, running is a way to get some alone time. For others, it can be a way to partner up with a friend or get involved with a running group.

Read
Monday, Sep. 28, 2020
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES On Wednesday, June 4, 1919 In front of the government Building Norris, with policeman, to the left of the [illegible] Loyal Returned Soldiers

Racist ingredients baked into Manitoba's 150th birthday cake

Ryan Thorpe 17 minute read Preview

Racist ingredients baked into Manitoba's 150th birthday cake

Ryan Thorpe 17 minute read Friday, Oct. 9, 2020

The steeple’s cross-tipped spire stabbed the sky, rising high above the domed architecture of old St. Boniface College like the outstretched fingers of the faithful grasping for heaven.

The flames worked quickly, their appetite for destruction insatiable as they licked their way up walls and down halls, shattered stained-glass windows and sucked up oxygen like kindling until the small blaze transmogrified into an inferno.

It was 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 25, 1922.

A Jesuit brother awoke in a flash, startled by what he thought was the sound of an explosion. Instead, he found a fire ripping through the oldest post-secondary institution in Western Canada, which had stood on the grounds of Winnipeg’s Provencher Park since 1880.

Read
Friday, Oct. 9, 2020
Me? I was on the couch… you?

Remembering when, where we were when Putin invaded Ukraine

Melissa Martin 7 minute read Preview

Remembering when, where we were when Putin invaded Ukraine

Melissa Martin 7 minute read Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022

As a child, I learned history through books and movies but lived it vicariously through the eyes of my father, gathering up all his where-were-you-whens with an insatiable hunger. Every time I learned about an event that had shaped the course of the world, my young mind did a hasty calculation and, having verified he’d been alive at the time, I’d ask him the question.

Where was he on May 8, 1945, when news broke that Germany had made an unconditional surrender? He was young, almost too young to remember, except in fragmented pictures: the kitchen of his little house in small-town Michigan, the hem of his mother’s dress, newscasters declaring victory on the radio, people running down the street in jubilation.

Where was he on Nov. 22, 1963, when John F. Kennedy was assassinated? In a classroom at the American university where he was teaching, finishing up a lecture. He went home through stunned streets and yelled at the dog; my mother, seeing this, snapped back that the dog didn’t do it, so he sat and wept and felt the world he knew fall apart.

By the time I was eight years old, I had committed most of these stories to memory. None were dramatic. None of them had my father at the heart of what was the most violent or important or transforming. He was, like many folks in North America and all of those who are lucky, only a second-hand witness to the greatest machinations of geopolitical trauma.

Read
Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022