Private flight with 2 Saudi astronauts returns from space station with Gulf of Mexico splashdown

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I mourn the end of summer every fall, but this year it’s far worse. My partner (a man, like me) broke up with me and my menagerie of animals.

The hardest part is that he still calls me before he goes to sleep at night — to see if I’m OK, and to tell me essentially, to buck up! Nothing like losing somebody and being told to be happy about it by the exact person you’ve lost.

He goes on about his new life and the people he’s meeting, and sometimes I just have to hang up on him.

Why does he bother calling? It seems like he maybe doesn’t know if he’s completely through with me yet, so he’s using me as a crutch. (Do I sound bitter?) What can I do?

Some years ago, I did some pretty in-depth research on ancient Athens and its democratic system of government as part of a documentary film I was pitching. It was actually a lot of fun, because I was looking at ways their democratic beliefs and practices were both similar to and different from ours.

Some of the differences were quite striking, such as the fact that only Athenian-born males 18 years of age and over could participate. Or the fact their executive branch was selected by a totally random lottery system — a system one expert described as akin to picking names out of a phone book.

Then there was the practice of ostracism, a procedure I found particularly attractive. Essentially, every year the citizens of Athens chose a political figure who was becoming too powerful or pushing for a more authoritarian regime and voted to banish him from the city for 10 years.

Needless to say, I can think of quite a few politicians I’d like to see subjected to that procedure.