Dear Ann Landers,
ou said in a recent column an en-lightened husband can be a great help to his wife during the menopause. Well, I'd like to add that an enlightened woman can also help herself-if she wants to. My wife's mother is a classic example of a woman who has used the menopause for all it's worth. She is sixty-eight and has kept her husband hovering over her with a fan in one hand and a sweater in the other for twenty years. Whenever she insults a friend (which is often) she says, "The change has made me awfully nervous." My own mother takes her pills quietly, goes to the doctor for shots, and you never hear a word out of her. My wife has already promised me that when this happens to her she is going to keep her mouth shut, and I am-Grateful.

Dear Grateful,
A woman of sixty-eight who has been complaining about the menopause for twenty years is over-doing it. She should have rung down the final curtain on that performance long ago. It's always pathetic when people must use physical discomfort (real or imaginary) as an attention- getting device. This in itself is a sickness, so don't be too hard on the old girl.