Am I risking a legal smackdown from Dear Abby?
You bet. The advice queen’s reps can reasonably contend that your blog violates copyright. Contrary to popular belief, copping content for satire doesn’t automatically qualify as fair use—and you’re probably over the line here. But you raise a philosophical question much more interesting than “fair use”: What is the point of advice columns? They come in two distinct flavors. Some, like the one you’re (hopefully) enjoying at this very moment, employ brief questions that reveal little. The columnist uses that relative anonymity as a springboard, expounding on variables left unmentioned in the initial query. You’ve chosen to mock the other kind of column, a breed that relies heavily on personal letters. The columnist’s advice isn’t necessarily the draw; readers get a voyeuristic thrill from the broken marriages, sexual perversions, and drunken relatives who ruin Thanksgiving. To be honest, Mr. Know-It-All doesn’t get the appeal—but he knows that swiping such letters is tantamount to swipi
