Dear Annie: Recently, you printed a letter from a woman whose boyfriend excessively belched. Well, now I am here to complain about my wife’s sneezes.

It’s the oddest thing. The more America’s Big Tech companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter have contributed to keeping America’s economy afloat during the coronavirus lockdown, the louder the voices get to break them up or to tie them up into regulatory knots.

Some say the pandemic has become a permanent ally in the fight against climate catastrophe. It has jump-started a drop in the burning of fossil fuels, and that will continue. Others say this is shortterm thinking: The public may abandon its concerns over global warming as it tries to climb out of the economic hole left by the COVID-19 lockdowns. Let's accentuate the positive.

Dear Annie: I've been applying for jobs but having no luck. I did interview at two places this month. It did not work out at either. I'm wondering about one part of the interview. When they ask if I have any questions for them, what am I supposed to say? I really need work and, honestly, don't need to know anything except whether I have the job. I tend to blank out and say no, thanking them for their time. Any advice you can offer would be appreciated. -- Striking Out

America feels like it's falling apart.

While psychology typically focuses on the treatment of mental health disorders, positive psychology is the study of happiness and what makes life worthwhile. Positive psychology is the scientific study of the elements and influences that are responsible for optimal functioning. Martin Seligman, Ph.D., believes that positive feelings stem from personal strengths and virtues rather than from shortcuts, such as drugs, alcohol, chocolate, shopping and television. Seligman is a psychologist and author of several books on the topic of positive psychology. He wrote, “Positive emotions alienated from the exercise of character leads to emptiness, inauthenticity and depression.” Seligman differentiates between pleasure and gratification. The positive feelings from pleasurable activities such as watching a movie, eating dessert or spending time with friends cannot compare with the positive feelings of gratification. Gratification and good feelings come from using your strengths and virtues to meet a challenge. Strength and virtue are enduring positive traits, while pleasure is a momentary feeling that is not a personality trait. Positive and negative traits initiate feelings. The positive trait of optimism leads to the interpretation of problems as being temporary and controllable; the optimist believes their difficulties in life are surmountable. On the other hand, the trait of pessimism can lead to the belief that problems will endure forever and are uncontrollable. Pessimists are at least eight times more likely to develop depression when negative experiences occur and to have shorter lives.

A recent letter from a reader who used borax to solve her dishwasher woes got me thinking about all the ways I use this handy product to clean and fix problems around the house.

Dear Annie: My mother and I usually have a very good relationship, but for the few months leading up to quarantine, and during quarantine, we have been getting on each other's nerves. Whenever one of us does something, the other criticizes it. Sometimes I have no idea what to say, and I can't control my anger toward her. When I can't control my anger, that leads to us getting into big arguments.

In the nine presidential elections between the 1952 victory of Dwight D. Eisenhower and George H.W. Bush's 1988 win, just two Republicans won the White House: Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. One man was indispensable to the winning campaigns of these two very different Republicans. His name was John P. Sears, and as a young 25 year-old lawyer, he would begin spending the three years leading up to the '68 victory traveling with Nixon as political lieutenant, chief delegate hunter and unofficial press contact. He was later the manager of Reagan's 1976 campaign, which almost captured the GOP nomination from President Gerald R. Ford and, until his forced resignation, he was the manager of Reagan's 1980 campaign.

Dear Annie: Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, my husband doesn't cough or sneeze into his arm. He sometimes coughs into his hand. No matter how hard I try to instill in him how he could be affecting everyone in the household, he argues that it's bull.