There’s plenty wrong with this picture

Advertisement

Advertise with us

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My new boyfriend claims nothing can wake him up once he’s in a deep sleep. So the other night, when I was staying over, I was lying there awake while he snored.

Read this article for free:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/01/2025 (559 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My new boyfriend claims nothing can wake him up once he’s in a deep sleep. So the other night, when I was staying over, I was lying there awake while he snored.

I sat up, slithered out of the bed and tip-toed into his computer room. I started to look at his bookshelf collection. It was pretty boring, but below the work-related books on the floor under the bottom shelf, I spotted some picture albums.

My eye caught a red album, unlike the others, so I pulled it out. It was an amateur porn collection featuring himself in a male bikini and otherwise completely naked, surrounded by some girls who looked college age — also naked.

I had no idea my boyfriend looked so hot then — he was young and fit. You could see he was into weightlifting. Wow. You could tell he knew he was hot and enjoyed the posing

I was not listening for footsteps. Suddenly, my boyfriend popped up beside me, grabbed the album and said, “These pictures are private — and none of your business.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Then he calmed down and got kind of sly-looking and said the only way he would let me get away with snooping in his stuff is if I posed for some hot photos for him.

I said no way, we fought for a while, then I left.

Today he started calling me and apologizing, and whining, “One little nude shot of you is all I wanted.”

— Nobody’s Nude Model, North Kildonan

Dear Nobody’s Nude: Don’t even consider posing for a nude picture to make things feel even. Tell your new guy you couldn’t be less interested and you’re finished if he continues to hassle you.

Images like this tend to end up in the oddest places, and it would be embarrassing if a nude photo of you got into the wrong hands.

What if you stayed with him for life? It would be particularly embarrassing once you’re older and have a family for the kids to find dad’s naughty photos.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: It’s only January and already my husband has rented a cabin, a boat and the works for this summer without my input.

We are newly married, and he didn’t even ask me to chip in one idea toward these plans. He didn’t even tell me about the rental until there was no going back on the plan. The money is paid and he gets his way. I’m so mad at him.

I reminded him we’re a married couple now and should be sharing this kind of idea. He just laughed and said, “Where would you have the money to pay for a place like this for more than a week?” He said he wanted to surprise me.

Baloney. He already has all his friends with cabins near his family’s cottage in Ontario, and I have all my family and friends at another lake in Manitoba. He just wants to get his way so he left me — “the love of his life” — completely out of the decision.

By the way, this is supposed to be our baby-making summer as we’re not a young couple.

How should I deal with this? I’m too old to be manipulated.

— Furious Bride, West End

Dear Furious Bride: This may be the last summer with so many options since starting a family is part of the immediate plan. You and your husband probably both have your own vehicles, so that’s great. If you don’t like the situation, you can leave.

You can go to your husband’s rental until you get tired of it and weary of the people who go with that deal. Your husband can accompany you to your own family’s lake at different times.

Not everybody enjoys being with relatives for entertainment on a 24-7 basis, so live it up with all the friends you can this summer before you’re on the way to baby No. 1.

Please send your questions and comments to lovecoach@hotmail.com or Miss Lonelyhearts c/o the Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6.

Maureen Scurfield

Maureen Scurfield
Advice columnist

Maureen Scurfield writes the Miss Lonelyhearts advice column.

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

TV with kick, secrets, rebellion and green rings

Denise Duguay 5 minute read Preview

TV with kick, secrets, rebellion and green rings

Denise Duguay 5 minute read 6:00 AM CDT

Deep into a summer with endless-seeming heat waves, squadrons of both mosquitoes and dragonflies, and a dearth of insect repellent, here is a richly varied smorgasbord of TV, new and returning, to illuminate your shade-darkened viewing spaces. Also, remember to hydrate.

• Ted Lasso (Season 4 premières Wednesday, Aug. 5, on Apple TV)

It’s the return of the nice guy, the can-do guy, the BELIEVE guy! But enough of that feel-good stuff. There are questions to be answered when the soccer-is-life series returns! How and why does Ted (Jason Sudeikis) leave the U.S. to go back to the U.K. to coach the AFC Richmond women’s team after having quit the Richmond men’s team at the end of Season 3? What fresh stories will the show come up with to avoid a female rewind of the first three seasons, good as those stories were? And finally how will Hannah Waddington gear down from the fun assassin role in Prime Video’s excellent new series Ride or Die back to the buttoned-down AFC team owner Rebecca Welton? Shall we all find out together?

• The Shards (series premières Wednesday, Aug. 5, on FX, and the next day on Disney+/Hulu)

Read
6:00 AM CDT

Stampeding to Starlette’s

David Sanderson 7 minute read Preview

Stampeding to Starlette’s

David Sanderson 7 minute read Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026

ELMA — Build it and they will come.

Lee and Star Giesbrecht are the owners of Starlette’s Burger Saloon, a western-themed, outdoor eating spot situated on the married couple’s 40-acre spread, immediately north of Elma.

Seated at one of a half-dozen picnic tables that dot the grounds, Star recalls a conversation she and Lee had prior to the May 2025 grand opening of their locale, which, with its weathered-wood exterior and rustic swinging doors, wouldn’t look out of place in an episode of Yellowstone.

Because they are “literally in the middle of nowhere,” Star says Lee thought it would be advantageous to mount a TV in one corner of the kitchen, for those occasions when they’d be twiddling their thumbs for hours on end, with little to do.

Read
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026

240 WestJet flight attendants picket in Winnipeg

Malak Abas 6 minute read Preview

240 WestJet flight attendants picket in Winnipeg

Malak Abas 6 minute read Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026

Winnipeg’s WestJet flight attendants took to the picket line outside of Richardson International Airport on the first day of nationwide strikes Sunday, while inside, frustrated flyers scrambled to re-route cancelled long-weekend flights.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees’ Ontario arm and the airline announced the strike would commence after the strike deadline was passed without a deal early Sunday morning. WestJet attendants have been without a contract since Dec. 31, 2025.

Hours later, the 240 WestJet flight attendants based in Winnipeg had walked off the job and were marching outside of the airport terminal, some carrying signs with slogans including “Tired with WestJet? So are We!” and “Unpaid Work Won’t Fly.”

Key issues causing the stalemate are wages and pay for work on the ground: the union says flight attendants are not being paid for some of that work, while the company says they pay for the work through a “credit hour” system rather than an hourly rate.

Read
Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026

Today’s horoscope

Georgia Nicols 4 minute read Preview

Today’s horoscope

Georgia Nicols 4 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

MOON ALERT: Caution. Avoid shopping (except food and gas) and important decisions from 1:15 p.m. until 10 p.m. After that, the moon moves from Aries into Taurus.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

You have lots of mental energy because the moon is in your sign dancing with your ruler fiery Mars, which pushes you into a leadership role. It makes you feel independent and ready to challenge anyone who challenges you.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Read
2:01 AM CDT

Building bridges for the next generation

Zoe Pierce 8 minute read Preview

Building bridges for the next generation

Zoe Pierce 8 minute read 6:00 AM CDT

Change has been the motivation behind Clayton Sandy’s work for decades.

A member of Sioux Valley Dakota First Nation, Sandy is an Indigenous knowledge keeper, cultural advisor and community advocate. His work has taken him into newcomer organizations, schools, hospitals and workplaces across Manitoba, where he teaches Indigenous history, mentors youth and helps build relationships between communities.

Sitting down for an interview with the Free Press, Sandy arrived with a busy calendar in hand, a reflection of the many projects and initiatives that continue to fill his days as he works to create change for future generations.

“I have two boys and I have five grandchildren. The racism I put up with was really bad,” Sandy said. “And I don’t want my grandchildren to put up with that garbage.”

Read
6:00 AM CDT

‘This is Mommy’s park’: city honours two-time Olympic champion curler Lawes

Zoe Pierce 3 minute read Preview

‘This is Mommy’s park’: city honours two-time Olympic champion curler Lawes

Zoe Pierce 3 minute read 1:21 PM CDT

When Kaitlyn Lawes drives through her childhood neighbourhood, she’ll now be able to point to a park bearing her name — and tell her daughters that anything is possible.

On Tuesday, the City of Winnipeg officially renamed Lindenwood Drive West Park in honour of the two-time Olympic gold medallist curler.

Lawes won her first Olympic gold medal in 2014 as part of Team Jennifer Jones at the Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia and captured a second gold medal in mixed doubles with John Morris at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

She has also won the 2018 World Women’s Curling Championship and the 2015 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, earned silver and bronze medals at the World Junior Curling Championships, and represented Manitoba at the Canada Games.

Read
1:21 PM CDT