On this date in 1966, author and advice columnist Carolyn Hax was born in Bridgeport, Conn. She attended Harvard University, graduating in 1988 with undergraduate degrees in American history and literature. She then worked as a writer and editor for different publications, including the Army Times and the Washington Post.
In 1997 she started her advice column called “Tell Me About It” for the Washington Post. The “Carolyn Hax” column now runs three days a week in over 200 publications, with the goal of giving honest advice to those who ask for it. She has contributed to several books and published her own book in 2001, Tell Me About It: Lying, Sulking, Getting Fat … and 56 Other Things Not to do While Looking for Love.
Hax, in an interview published by the Washington Post on May 30, 1999, said she bases her advice on the Golden Rule. This maxim was repeated by many cultures, including the ancient Greeks and Chinese, and was first recorded by the ancient Egyptians. “You don’t have to believe in God to see it is the perfect, working guideline for doing unto others,” Hax said.
She was married to her column’s cartoonist, Nick Galifianakis, until 2001. Galifianakis continues to illustrate her columns. She married Ken Ackerman in 2002, and they have three children together.
