Dear Margo Is Wrong

Did you know that Yahoo has an advice columnist? Me neither. Did you know that said columnist is the daughter of Ann Landers? The better question is did you know that Ann Landers has a daughter and that she is following in her mother’s footsteps?

Anyway, take a look at this December 12, 2008 Dear Margo column:

DEAR MARGO: I have been dating a guy for two years, and when we met, everything was perfection. We have had ups and downs, of course, but I feel there's one thing that is always putting a strain on our life: My boyfriend is totally obsessed with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Everything he does revolves around them, from the clothes he wears each day (always a Penguins hat and/or shirt) to the car he drives (his license plate boasts the name of his favorite player) to his room, which is covered floor to ceiling with 8 by 10 pictures, jerseys in cases, pucks, sticks, game-used skates and hockey cards. He needs to go to all the home games (42-plus over eight months), and he goes alone because he only has one ticket. His hockey mania takes a huge toll on our relationship because it involves a large chunk of time away from "us." We both work and go to school, so our time is limited, but the Penguin season in the mix makes it much worse. I end up feeling unimportant to him -- almost as if he has a second girlfriend and he's cheating on me with "her." Please help me find a way to make him understand my feelings and to lessen the strain on our relationship.
--- OFF-SEASON-ONLY GIRLFRIEND

DEAR OFF: You have my sympathies. A former husband was also obsessed with hockey ... about which I knew nothing. In fact, I remember watching the first game he took me to for a while and then blurting, "My God! They're on skates!" I suspect that even if your boyfriend had two tickets it would not solve your problem. Your guy sounds like such a jock and a fanatic that my hunch is the romance cannot last. No offense, but the Penguins seem to have edged you out in terms of where he puts his energy and spends his time. I suspect he already understands your feelings, and that a relationship is not so important to him. I am guessing the only way you could see more of him is if you ran the Zamboni machine.

Margo is anti-hockey and based on this believes that Off-Season-Only Girlfriend needs to end the relationship. Perhaps she should meet with her Yahoo colleague, Greg Wyshynski of Puck Daddy, to learn more about the game. However, let’s just take a look at the relationship. Have we as a society learned nothing from the terrible movie (but terrific book) Fever Pitch? There is certainly a way to mix fandom and relationships. I think the larger issue here is that the boyfriend only has a single ticket. The root of the problem is that Off-Season-Only does not have the opportunity to join her boyfriend at the Penguins games. If she could share in the joy of watching Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin live with her boyfriend, the relationship would be fine.

Actually, maybe Margo is right. Off-Season-Only is writing Margo asking her to “help me find a way to make him understand my feelings.” If she can’t communicate her feelings to her boyfriend, maybe he’s better off without her.

h/t Amy


It turns out Pensburgh already wrote about this. That's OK as I'm sure more people out there will agree with me!