You get to the point and mouth off to me, I’ll lend my ear, everybody else can be nosy and delighted. (From Getty Images)
I’m not shy about sharing my thoughts on your blog. Yeah, I know that you know. I made that year-end Top Five commenter list on the Monkey Report for a lot of you, didn’t I?
Thankfully, as I made my way through the Happy New Years and glad-to-know-yous this past week — all heartfelt and a benefit of the time I put into building my community through markbialczak.com — I saw more than a few responses thanking me for my kind and generous spirit and gentle humor. Or words very similar to that phrase but of the exact sentiment.
Wow. Really? Thank you. I’m humbled. Just being me.
This got me to thinking more about an idea that’s been rattling around the brain for some time now.
I grew up reading the Ann Landers and Dear Abbys of the world, the twin advice-givers, the queens of newspaper syndication. These days my eyes gravitated toward the work of Amy Dickinson, a wonderful woman who lives in the Southern Tier of Upstate New York whom I got to interview once for a story when I worked for the big daily, then saw give a lecture and performace-art show in a Syracuse theater.
I always thought that I’d like to be on the giving end of that sort of thing. And that I could seriously put some humor and soul and everyday common sense into it.
So here goes. What the hey.
Free Advice will become a part of markbialczak.com in 2015 if …
Anybody out there sends me questions. Yeah, that’s a pretty humungous if.
I’m going to take it as seriously as I can. But my responses may be somewhat funny. (Gentle, remember above?) Letter writers can remain anonymous, of course, but the situations, dilemmas, problems, questions, should be real. Also, come up with a great psuedo name, won’t you please?
Da-da-dum.
Feel free to share this post with anybody more messed up than you who may be daring enough to send in a question. Ha!
My email address is markbialczak@gmail.com. I promise not to make any questions up. If you see a first installment of Free Advice, well, here we go.
Mark Bialczak 
This sound FABULOUS!!
I am already thinking up my questions. And, as I had suspected, would like to reblog when your first one is up. It sounds like a fun notion to spread across the bloggy wires.
You’re a thinker, my friend!
*wanders off to find the very best, most stump-filled question possible….
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I’ll have to get my big shovel out to remove your big stumps, Michelle! 🙂 Thank you, as always, my friend.
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WOW, Mark! You never fail to entertain. What a fun idea! Perhaps you should direct a few of these posts to your local newspaper, then you can syndicate this idea into a column. I hope you’re enjoying your time off. Be sure to bring us back a souvenir! 😀
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Let’s get Free Advice cranking here, then we’ll syndicate, Rachel. 🙂 Souvenirs! Dagnabbit!!
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Once the advice gig takes off, perhaps you can also offer helpful household hints like Heloise used to. 😉
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Ha! Good one, Rachel.
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LOL! I loved all those old advice columns. 🙂
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Sounds like a plan Mark!
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I think this could be fun in 2015, Paul.
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All the stuff I really need help with isn’t fit for public consumption. That kind of defeats the purpose of soliciting advice from you, doesn’t it?
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That’s why I’m putting the anonymous portion of the questioners in there, Mark. Unless you mean even anonymously not fit for public consumption, in which case, send me the email anyway and let me decide. I won’t tell anyone nor judge you in anyway, I promise. 🙂
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lol, I am so not going to send a Q to you, Mark! Never ask a fellow Sagittarius for advice 😉 Love that you’re doing this. Go get ’em, Mark.
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You have all the answers already anyway, Liz. 🙂 Like all fellow Sagittarians believe. I will go get ’em, for sure.
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I love this. Hope Mark has a chuckle when he logs back in. I agree with the earlier posts who are”they”.. we so use it to describe so many occasions that we have no idea what we really are talking about.
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Louise, here’s an example of why people are going to love Free Advice.
We are they when society has run off the rails and a widespread consensus and behavior has come up with a bad plan or idea.
But they are we when a great idea becomes commonplace and we all can smile and bask in the success an take credit.
Get those questions in.
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Hmm… trying to think of sincere questions to ask, even if all the juicy, fabricated ones seem like they’d be tons of fun!
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Truth is always stranger than fiction, Dave, and the cloak of anonymity solves the element of shame. Just saying. Let’s all strap on the think-caps and ask away.
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I just thought of a question Mark, but then i forgot it. I’ll have to keep a pen and paper beside my nest so I can write them down when they occur to me at 3 a.m., or you could send me your phone number and I could call you when they come to me. Seriously, this could be interesting, and a lot of fun to read.
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I think this is going to be seriously fun, Angie. Thanks for having faith in the premise. 🙂
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I woulod say I was sorry for the blogjacking, but it was fun in a crackpot kind of way. Welcome back, and don’t leave us alone for so many days at a time again Mark. You can see from this how much we need you here.
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No need to apologize, Angie. You were all like a bunch of kids running loose. I a good way. 🙂
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Well this should prove interesting, Chum. I loved Dear Abby. I do hope you get some takers.
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Those newspaper columns were always eye-openers, Aud. I have big shoes to fill. Once the questions are regular, this is going to be awesome!
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I like asking you questions, Mark, and getting questions from you. Great idea!
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You and I, Ann, have been doing this sort of thing in our comment boxes for more than a year!
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You’re full of all kinds of neat ideas! I’ll try to think of a question for you.
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Thank you, MeWho. I like this one. I think we are going to have a very fun time.
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Can’t wait! 😀
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You are the perfect candidate for an anonmyous question, Wormy, culled from cross-country driving with your hubby and longing for never-eaten White Castle belly blasters. Perhaps? Thanks fo your faith.
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Great idea. It will be fun to read what everyone asks you and then to hear your answers! Mark’s Mayhem! ❤
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I believe there may be anarchy in the streets because of Free Advice. Dogs and cats getting along, Colleen! Thanks for your vote for Mark’s Mayhem. ❤
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Ha ha… Looking forward to your free advice. 😎
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this sounds great, mark. i look forward to your kind/funny/wise-(ass)/wise answers.
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I intend to be all of your above, Beth. Anonymous questions, you must have one or 12, the exciting life you’ve lead.
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I don’t need no advice. I just need consent. (This comment only makes sense to old movie buffs, I’m afraid. And by “old movie buffs,” that means either you are a movie buff and you’re old, or that you are a fan old movies, regardless of your age. Or perhaps that you’re both old and you’re a fan of old movies.)
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I don’t need no advice. I just need consent to give somebody a hard time for making fun of my age. I also don’t need no stinking badge to do that!
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I know what you mean in every sense of your comment, Doobster, which signals me as an old movie buff and an old movie buff.
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Wow, okay, hope it works out. You know I may just have to get a whole other email address so I can anonymously send you letters seeking advice that are completely bizarre. But I wouldn’t do that….now would I…?
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I would love real bizarre questions that people can relate all over the WordPress universe, Marissa, from any email address at all. Fire away. I secured a figurative Free Advice thinking cap over my WP rest break.
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You know, I may just have some coming your way soon
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Our own Agony Uncle Mark – great idea! But this year i plan to have no problems as there were just too many of them last year. 🙂 However, I love making up pseudo names.. I’ll have to get a new email address or you will know it’s me!
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It’s really easy to get another email address, isn’t it, Rachel? Not that I’ve ever gone and done that.
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another password to keep track of..:)
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I just thought of something, you need to post your email so we can send in our questions anonymously.
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He posted it above. markbialczak@gmail.com At least I think that’s the correct spelling. It’s in the dark print where he usually puts the questions for us to answer.
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Yes, Angie has it right, my email is markbialczak@gmail.com.
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Yes, correct, Angie, in the dark print where I usually ask the questions.
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I bet your answers will be really clever and funny Mark. I will have to think of a ‘love/romance’ related one! ❤
Diana xo
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I will think real hard to clever, funny and useful, Diana, on all topics. Love and romance will get me plenty of clicks, so please think and send me questions!
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How exciting! I’m going to start writing my massive list of questions. 😆
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We’ll all pitch in and help answer.
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Everybody can still blogjack every Free Advice post like this even when I’m not on break and give their opinion. I’m just saying. I’ll comment in, too, but I won’t be mean or anything. I don’t think.
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PJ, please email me a massive list of questions!
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Haha! You’re going to be sorry you asked for it. Haha!!!LOL
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carl that is one for Jacke Wilsons’ site . he is looking for the inevitable questions. But hey i like it. Hope you had a nice break with your wife… How come men shave their faces but not their underarms, bikini lines, legs etc?
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Who is Jackie Wilson? How did you get your name, Louise? (It was my mother’s name, so I always notice people who share that beautiful name with her.) How come we shave our underarms, bikini lines, leg, etc.? Do you mind that I’m butting in like this? Doesn’t Mark have great ideas?
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Jacke wilson has a blog and he is currently asking for ‘the unanswerable inevitable question” Yes mark has great advice… Not taking that away from him.. Actually I wish he would part with advice on how to keep a relationship since he and his wife have been together so long.
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I like the way you think, Louise! I would definitely take advice from you.
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Ann you are a hoot! If I didn’t already know you are a psycho, oops, I mean a psychotherapist, I would think you might be a psychotherapist. But then, you are, so maybe I mean you need one. Do you have one? Why not? Do you need one?
Uh, Mark, see what happens when you take a few days off, then put an idea like this out there? Your blog gets blog-jacked. Uh, post-jacked? Oh, whatever..
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It takes one to know one. I’m going to report you for being a hoot and for hi-jacking!
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Jackie Wilson – singer “Lonely Teardrops” , Higher and Higher”. See Utube.
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Oh I know men that do that Louise! Swimmers and cyclists to name a few.
It’s cute how we are answering each other because we know Mark is taking a break. ❤
Diana xo
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Hi, Diana! In my professional capacity as a group therapist, I would say that this is like a group with the facilitator not there. That can definitely be fun!
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When the Cat’s away, the mice will play! Fun for sure. ❤
Diana xo
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See Mark? Ann’s taken over your blog because she has bragging rights now. Bet you didn’t know that about her. And men are weird Diana. But really, would you want to see one with a shaved bikini line? That is beyond weird. I know swimmers do that to cut down on gravity so they can cut thru the water faster, and cyclists so they can cycle faster, but really, does a little bit of body hair make that much difference? Eewwee.
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actually for cyclists it saves them from road rash. When you fall off a speeding bike and have hair on your legs it makes your skin rip off. Ouch!
Ok Ann and Kentucky Angel. Mark said he scheduled posts for while he’s away. I’m enjoying this taking over his blog thing – we should continue on every post till he gets back. It will help us not to feel so…so…empty without him!
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Louise, I have put your shaving question into my Free Advice file. Of course it will not be anonymous if people do any sort of clicking …
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Where did they get the idea that the sun comes up and the moon rises?
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Who are they? And here’s a question from me: what will Mark think about my butting in?
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I have the same question Ann. Who are *they*? They seem to be everywhere!
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I think we should ignore them!
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Good idea, but *they* say that just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it’s not there.
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They can be very annoying, don’t you think?
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Yes they can!
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They are watching. They are coming. Who are they? Well , it’s Marks blog so that’s another one for him to answer. They won’t let me answer.
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I wopuld love it if they read my blog, Ann, and you butting in while I took my break was a think of beauty.
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This string of comments made me laugh!
Apparently my Mom knows them very well. Fortunately, for me, she sends their advice on a quite regular basis 🙂
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This made ME laugh.
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I’m so glad! I felt a little sarcastic when I wrote it, but my husband and I always laugh when my mom starts every sentence with “They say….”
Have a great day 🙂
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Send that one off to Ask Copernicus or such, Carl. Thanks.
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