Matt Weinstock, Dec. 30, 1960

Dec. 30, 1960: “The Quietest Room in Town” is the sort of piece, like “Please God, I’m Only 17,” that used to appear regularly in newspapers to encourage safe driving. Matt Weinstock says: Former newsman Darr Smith recalls interviewing Clark Gable in his trailer while making a film at MGM. "Gable's previous film, ‘Parnell,’ had been a dismal flop, savagely panned by American critics. On the wall of the trailer was a rave review of ‘Parnell’ from the North China Daily News, framed in bamboo. Under it, Gable, a man of great, quiet humor, had written: ‘400,000,000 Chinese can't be wrong.’ ” DEAR ABBY: The company my husband works for had a Christmas party. I got down on my hands and knees and begged him not to go this year because last year he came home drunk with lipstick all over his face. Well, he went anyway and came home drunker this year than last and full of lipstick. I hit him on the head with..... On the jump, “Please, God, I’m Only 17,” from June 16, 1976. Notice that Abby didn’t write “Please, God,” someone sent it in, explaining that it was an editorial clipped from “our local newspaper.” Bonus information: Ann Landers had "Please, God" on Sept. 13, 1971. This version has a two-paragraph introduction that was later excised and the source is: "a Kalamazoo teenager who asked me to reprint this fantasy, which appeared in the Tiger Tattler, the school paper of Lawrence." At that time it was titled "In Love With Life -- or How It Would Be if I were Killed in an Automobile Accident."