By: Nate Gotlieb

Sophomore shortstop Michael Handel drove in three runs as the Gophers defeated North Dakota State 5-3 at Siebert Field on Wednesday for their sixth straight win.

Minnesota (24-13) overcame a slow offensive start to sweep its season series with North Dakota State. The Gophers beat the Bison 4-2 at the Metrodome on Feb. 27.

Minnesota is now 4-1 at the new Siebert Field.

Head coach John Anderson said he was impressed with the pitching staff’s performance Tuesday after a week of no games.

“It’s hard to stay sharp when you don’t get work,” he said. “I thought, overall, we pitched well and played pretty good defense.”

Minnesota used five pitchers Tuesday. They combined to give up three earned runs and five hits while striking out nine.

North Dakota State used eight pitchers Tuesday, which kept the Gophers’ hitters uncomfortable, Handel said.

Playing for the first time since April 16, the Gophers’ offense was sluggish early in the game, recording one hit in the first four innings.

Minnesota finally broke through in the fifth inning, thanks in part to one of three North Dakota State fielding errors.

With the Gophers down 1-0, senior Troy Larson reached on an error by North Dakota State’s third baseman. He advanced to third base on a wild pitch and scored on a passed ball.

The Gophers took a 2-1 lead later in the inning when Handel drove in sophomore second baseman Connor Schaefbauer with a single.

Handel gave the Gophers a 4-1 lead in the seventh, drilling a fastball over the left-field fence for a two-run home run on a 3-1 count. The Gophers added another run in the inning when pinch-runner Jake Bergren scored on a Dan Olinger single.

North Dakota State scored two runs in the eighth, but Gophers senior closer Billy Soule shut the door on a potential comeback in the ninth. After a leadoff walk, Soule induced a 6-4-3 double play and struck out the game’s final batter.

The Gophers’ winning streak dates back to an April 7 win at Northwestern. They have held their opponents to 1.7 runs per game during the streak.

By: Drew Claussen

Life threw freshman Nikki Anderson a curveball a week before she had the chance to throw one for the Gophers.

“I went to the ER for what felt like a heart attack,” Anderson said.

She had gallstones, pieces of solid material that form in the gallbladder and can block the flow of acids through the intestines.

She needed surgery to remove her gallbladder right before Minnesota’s opening weekend.

She was back on the mound a week later.

The Brainerd, Minn., native has settled in as a reliable No. 2 starter behind Sara Moulton for Minnesota this season. She has a 2-2 record during Big Ten play and a 4-3 record overall.

Assistant coach Piper Ritter said Anderson seems to be “coming into her own” during conference play after a couple of rough nonconference outings.

“It didn’t take her very long to bounce back,” he said.

Head coach Jessica Allister said Anderson had lost most of the strength she had built up during the preseason, but she has shown “a vast improvement” over the past month.

“We knew it was there,” Allister said. “It was just a matter of her getting back to the form that she was in.”

Anderson was a standout at Brainerd High School, where she was named Minnesota’s Ms. Softball and Minnesota’s Gatorade Softball Player of the Year in 2012.

Though most of the players on the Gophers’ roster are either from the Twin Cities metro area or out of state, Anderson was on Allister’s radar right away.

“We kept hearing about a hard-throwing lefty up in Brainerd,” she said.

But Allister and Ritter had a tough time scouting Anderson because Minnesota’s high school softball schedule aligns with the Gophers schedule.

While a short drive to watch a player in the metro area was feasible, a four-hour round-trip up north was not.

“Minnesota’s high school softball [season] is really short and compact,” Ritter said. “And then everyone goes out and plays summer ball. That’s where they continue where they left off in high school.”

Ritter finally got a good look at Anderson at a national tournament in Tennessee.

“I liked her feistiness,” Ritter said. “She competed with every batter.”

Anderson made an immediate impact during her first semester at Minnesota. Allister said she made tremendous strides in the weight room during her fall semester, which translated to her success in the pitching circle.

In a way, Anderson ending up at Minnesota makes perfect sense — her grandfather won a national championship with the Gophers baseball team in 1956, and her aunt is a member of the Minnesota Softball Hall of Fame.

“When coach Allister contacted me, I definitely knew this was where I wanted to be,” Anderson said.

By: Megan Ryan

Junior Zach Siegmeier sort of fell into pole vaulting. He picked up the event his freshman year of high school to avoid offseason football conditioning and placed most of his focus on another spring sport, lacrosse.

Fast-forward seven years and Siegmeier is having a standout second season pole vaulting for the Gophers.

His eyes are set on a lofty goal — to finish in the top six and become an All-American at the NCAA outdoor championships in June.

Part of Siegmeier’s success may stem from senior teammate and decathlete Jack Szmanda, whom he met at a summer camp.

Siegmeier attended Cuesta College in California at the time, but Szmanda thought Siegmeier would strengthen the Gophers’ pole vaulting team.

“I knew we were graduating a couple of our really good pole vaulters … and we needed some more good jumpers,” Szmanda said. “I had actually seen him jump throughout that week at the camp, and I told him, ‘You should come to the U.’ And he got really excited, and it kind of all came together.”

Siegmeier visited Minnesota that winter and competed in an open meet before officially signing. The Illinois native said he had never thought about coming to Minnesota before Szmanda’s suggestion.

But Siegmeier’s first season with the Gophers was riddled with injuries that interrupted his progress. He had surgery last summer for a groin strain and hernia.

This year, Siegmeier has been able to continuously train.

“It’s been amazing to be able to be healthy the whole time and just to continue to build on everything I’ve been working on,” Siegmeier said.

Siegmeier set a new personal pole vault record of 5.31 meters two weeks ago at the John McDonnell Invitational.

Szmanda said Siegmeier’s success this outdoor season was only a matter of time.

“Everybody knew it was going to happen,” Szmanda said. “That’s kind of the way pole vault works. You just keep going at it and keep positive, and you’re going to end up going higher.”

Szmanda called his roommate determined, which is apt considering the two share a friendly rivalry.

“We’re definitely pushing each other,” Siegmeier said. “I don’t know if it’s as much for him as it is for me — because for me, I only have pole vault, so my only thing to beat him in is the pole vault.”

Even with the competition, Siegmeier knows he owes a lot to Szmanda.

“We’re like best friends,” Siegmeier said, “and it’s really nice to have someone like him, because pole vault really is his favorite [event].” 

By: Nickalas Tabbert

The Gophers women’s golf team purposely stayed home the past two weekends to prepare for the Big Ten championships.

A busy spring schedule, with practice on the first day of spring semester, took Minnesota out of the Midwest for all five tournaments.

This weekend the Gophers will travel their shortest distance of the spring — about 700 miles — to French Lick, Ind.

Coach Michele Redman said the team was simply worn out after playing in the Rebel Intercollegiate in Mississippi three weeks ago.

“That’s going to happen when you play as many tournaments as we play,” Redman said after the tournament.

Last year the Gophers played in a tournament the weekend before championships, where they placed eighth. Redman said they are more rested this year because they stayed home.

Redman said she’s considering changing the team’s spring schedule next season to give the team a break somewhere near the middle of the schedule.

The team’s typical fall schedule — four tournaments in roughly seven weeks — is much more manageable for the golfers, she said.

But traveling has allowed the Gophers to play in warmer conditions, as a late spring has kept Minnesota off its own golf course.

Redman said she hopes the lighter schedule this month will bring better results this weekend. All of Minnesota’s players in the lineup have already played the Donald Ross Course, where the championships will be held.

“I think that’s a big advantage for us,” she said.

The Gophers will have to focus on course management and making smart golf decisions this weekend to score well, Redman said.

Men seek fast start

The men’s golf team has played only one round of golf in Minnesota this spring.

Coach John Carlson said he had to determine his lineup based on tournament results and head-to-head matchups between players.

“It wasn’t a perfect solution to really set the team,” he said, “but I’m really confident with the guys that are going.”

Carlson said the team needs consistency this weekend, especially in the opening 36 holes Friday.

“That really set us up confidence-wise,” he said of having a strong start. “We’ve been able to really maintain a good finish if we had a good start.”

A good start will be important this weekend at the Pete Dye Course, one of the most difficult courses in Indiana. Carlson said the course is different than most because of its elevation, tight fairways and length.

“It’s a monster,” he said. “The Pete Dye golf course is just something that most Big Ten teams just don’t face on a normal scale.”

Notes

– This is the second year the men’s and women’s championships have been held at a neutral site together.

– The women’s lineup this weekend will feature sophomores Carmen Laguna, Anna Laorr, Sarinee Thitiratanakorn and Taylor Quinn, junior Banchalee Theinthong and senior Jackie Shepherd.

– The men’s lineup will feature freshman Jon DuToit, sophomore Tyler Lowenstein, junior Jon Trasamar and seniors Erik Van Rooyen and Robert Bell.

– Though both teams will play at the French Lick Resort this weekend, they will likely only see each other at Thursday night’s banquet for the seniors.

By: Dane Mizutani

Minnesota’s women’s head tennis coach Chuck Merzbacher has acknowledged all season that his roster is littered with youth.

That youth that has led the team at times.

Though a junior and a sophomore hold the top two spots in the singles lineup, freshmen Paula Rincon Otero and Jessika Mozia have contributed greatly to the Gophers.

“They really kind of in a way saved the season,” Merzbacher said of his freshman class. “We had three very good returners not in our singles lineup, and those guys stepped up.”

Rincon Otero is 12-16 this year after she was forced to miss the first third of the season due to eligibility issues. Mozia is 22-16 and the only regular player on the team with a winning record this season.

Rincon Otero, a native of Madrid, Spain, was a touted international recruit. She has shown to be a tactician on the court, but her game has lacked consistency.

Merzbacher raved about Rincon Otero and the talent she brought to the team at the start of the season, but Mozia has been more impressive thus far.

A native of Littleton, Colo., Mozia was a four-star tennis recruit out of Colorado Academy high school and has proven that rank this season. Though she usually plays lower in the lineup at the No. 4 or No. 5 singles position, she has emerged as a leader on the team.

Less than three months ago, Mozia talked about butterflies in her stomach before matches.

Those butterflies seem to have dissipated.

“They were both kind of thrown in the fire and saw some success,” Merzbacher said of the two freshmen. “They were definitely stretched. We had an immediate need for them, and they both responded well.”

Mozia’s response and consistent play as of late was recognized in a big way in mid-April as Merzbacher awarded her a full scholarship for the 2013-14 school year.

Men used loss as a turning point

The Gophers men’s team started the season 3-5 and lost four straight matches at one point.

But a loss to rival Wisconsin that dropped the team to 3-6 was the turning point in the season.

Senior Rok Bonin said the team realized it had talent but needed to change things up on the court.

“We changed some stuff up and gained our confidence back after that loss,” Bonin said.

That confidence has resulted in success. The Gophers have won nine of their last 10 matches entering the Big Ten tournament this weekend.

By: Alma Pronove

Johnson High School senior Celestine Xiong makes minimum wage working at the Dinkytown McDonald’s.

Hoping to attend the University of Minnesota next fall, Xiong has been saving her $7.25-an-hour wages to pay for school.

Minnesota is one of several states that follow the federal minimum wage, but legislators want to change that.

Policymakers have introduced several bills this session to increase the minimum wage, but Rep. Ryan Winkler’s proposal is the only one still being considered.

The Golden Valley Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party member introduced a bill that would incrementally raise minimum wage to $10.55 by August 2015. The bill also calls for the establishment of a system that would adjust minimum wage to reflect inflation.

Biomedical engineering freshman Sara Russett already makes $10 an hour working at Grand Ole Creamery in Minneapolis, but she said that as a student, more money would help.

“The money I make right now helps me pay for books,” she said. “But I’m always open to making more money.”

Xiong is the oldest of seven children, so she has to stretch her paycheck to help out her family.

“Yesterday my mom asked me if I could help pay for car insurance, and a raise would allow me to help out,” she said. “$7.25 doesn’t really meet the realities of daily life.”

Kris Jacobs, executive director of Jobs Now Coalition, has testified in favor of increasing the minimum wage.

“Demand for good jobs is outpacing the number of good jobs in the economy,” she said. “Businesses reap the rewards of lower wages, but workers are getting the shaft.”

Jacobs and other consumer advocates say that, based on their research, the minimum wage should actually be closer to $14 to meet the realities of job availability and basic living costs.

Rep. Jason Metsa, DFL-Virginia, who co-authored the bill, challenged himself to live on minimum wage for a week earlier this month, which he said gave him a new perspective on the issue.

“I really took the challenge because I believe we need to do something,” he said. “$7.25 is not enough to get by on, and we need to address that.”

The most common complaints heard in opposition to raising minimum wage rates have come from businesses.

Alyssa Johnson, manager of the Purple Onion Cafe in Dinkytown, said a minimum wage increase would have little effect on the business.

“Most people don’t stay at minimum wage at our place for that long,” she said. “… Obviously, it would affect our overhead costs, but it would also affect employee satisfaction.”

Winkler’s bill still has to go through the Ways and Means Committee but will likely be voted on by the end of the month.

Metsa said he thinks there will be an increase this year, though the amount is still unclear.

“Overall, I don’t think anyone is arguing the fact that we need to do something,” he said.

University marketing sophomore Jessica Gross works as a server at Sally’s Saloon and Eatery to put herself through school.

“The minimum wage seriously doesn’t do anything,” she said. “I make all my money in tips.”

By: Jake Stark

A University of Minnesota student was robbed early Sunday near Marcy Park, according to a Minneapolis police report.

The victim, 19, was walking alone at about 1 a.m. one block away from Marcy Park when three men approached him and asked for money, said Minneapolis police Sgt. Steve McCarty.

When the victim said he didn’t have any money, one of the men demanded his cellphone, and he gave it up, McCarty said.

The three men left the victim unharmed, and McCarty said they fled the scene before police arrived.

The victim gave up the phone because he felt intimidated by the suspects, the report said.

The robbery might have been avoided had the victim not walked by himself, McCarty said. Police encourage students to walk in well-lit areas and with groups, especially late at night.

He added that he thought the victim was smart to give up his cellphone without a fight.

“A lot of people are inclined to tell these potential robbers ‘no,’” he said. “But you don’t want that refusal to end up with someone getting hurt.”

Burglar surprises students near Como Avenue

Four women returned home to find a burglar in their house Sunday afternoon, a Minneapolis police report said.

The women, three of whom are University students, arrived at their home near the Como Student Community Cooperative and discovered a man in their house, McCarty said.

When the man saw them, he did not confront them and instead fled the scene through the side door, McCarty said.

The man dropped some of the items he was carrying in the house, but he still left with electronics and jewelry, McCarty said.

Though it is rare for people to come face to face with a burglar, McCarty said it is best not to confront them.

“You never know if the person is armed,” he said. “You never know what they’ll do.”

UMPD issues few drug citations on 4/20

University police responded to few reports of drug use on campus Saturday. The day is known as a holiday by marijuana users, characterized by heavy public smoking.

Officers only handed out three citations for narcotics violations and possession of drug paraphernalia Saturday.

Campus has seen large April 20 celebrations in the past. A 2010 event drew about 100 people to Northrop Mall to smoke marijuana and hookah tobacco.

University police Lt. Troy Buhta said large April 20 celebrations are generally not as prevalent at the University.

“I know it’s a day where people show support by smoking,” he said. “Fortunately, it’s not as big a problem on our campus as it is with others.”

By: Dane Mizutani

Whitney Taney is arguably the most dominant women’s tennis player to ever walk the halls at Edina High School. She ended her high school career six years ago with a 166-0 record, one that might never be matched.

Then she took her talents to the University of Michigan, where she holds the record for the most career doubles wins.

Now, in her first year as an assistant coach at Minnesota, she’s trying to help turn around a struggling Gophers women’s tennis program.

Taney was promoted to be a full-time assistant before the 2012-13 season after spending one year as a volunteer assistant.

“I’m focused on helping build this program,” she said. “I’m glad to be back in Minnesota.”

Taney has been hooked on tennis since she first picked up a racquet at age 6.

“I always played other sports growing up, but tennis was the sport I really loved,” she said, “and I knew I wanted to excel

in it.”

She met that goal because of support from her father, Ted Taney.

“He has been with me every step of the way,” Whitney Taney said. “I am the person I am today because of him.”

Ted Taney played tennis for the Gophers in the mid-1970s. He said he knew his daughter was a special player when she was about 10.

“She had a passion,” he said. “She always wanted to get better and took every step to get better. I knew back then that she truly wanted to be good at it.”

Whitney Taney said she and her father played tennis every night after her practices. She said tennis was consuming at times, but she knew she had to commit to it to succeed.

“I’ve had people always come up to me and say, ‘How were you able to work with your daughter?’” Ted Taney said. “That was never a problem for us.

“I don’t think we’ve ever even played a set,” he added. “I was there to try to get her better and help her reach her goals. It was never about us competing against each other.”

Whitney Taney’s commitment paid off when she got to high school. She downplayed her 166-match winning streak but said she “never took it for granted” and tried to approach every match the same way.

But her father said it was a huge deal at the time.

“It was more difficult for her as it continued because expectations were always so high,” he said. “I was just concerned whether she was still having fun with the sport.”

Her dominance on the tennis court attracted colleges from all over, but Taney said she wanted to stay in the Midwest. She took a handful of unofficial college visits her junior year before picking Michigan, one of the top teams in the Big Ten.

“I love Minnesota,” she said. “I lived 15 minutes away, but at that time it was about going out and trying something new. It kind of made me grow up, being in a different state.”

Though her father graduated from Minnesota, Taney said he fully supported her choice to go to Michigan.

“I told her nothing is forever,” Ted Taney said. “I told her the option was always there to come back to Minnesota, so she knew that.”

Taney contributed right away at Michigan and found her niche as a doubles player.

She held a 114-34 doubles record in her four years at Michigan and finished 35-4 in the Big Ten.

“She just knew the doubles court so well,” Wolverines head coach Ronni Bernstein said. “She wasn’t a huge server or a person that came forward super aggressive. She just put the ball in the right spot.”

Taney also played in the middle of the Wolverines’ singles lineup and posted an 89-35 career record. She was named All-Big Ten her freshman, junior and senior seasons and was elected captain her final two years with the team.

“She was definitely somebody our players could count on in her time,” Bernstein said. “She just did the right thing on and off the court. She walked the walk, and that’s what set her apart from the rest.”

Taney said she enjoyed her four years at Michigan, but she called herself a “Minnesota girl” at heart.

And she proved it when she returned home after college in 2011. She chose to coach at Minnesota despite opportunities to continue her playing career.

“I just loved coaching tennis,” she said. “I saw my coaches do it and shadowed them, and I fell in love with it.”

Taney coaches with energy and can relate to the players on the team because of her youth.

“We really hit a home run with Whitney,” head women’s coach Chuck Merzbacher said. “I’ve coached for 23 years, and she is one of the best assistants I’ve ever had.”

By: Andrew Krammer

The Gophers’ recruitment of Apple Valley High School star Tyus Jones began four years ago, and the nation’s top-ranked point guard prospect for 2014 hasn’t even started his senior year of high school.

Former Gophers coach Tubby Smith visited Jones at his first practice before eighth grade in 2009, which helped initiate a storm of interest around the hometown recruit.

Four years later, Smith is fired, and 30-year-old Richard Pitino is slated to pick up where the 61-year-old left off in the recruitment of Jones and other nationally coveted recruits from Minnesota.

“I wouldn’t say it was a setback at all,” Apple Valley head coach Zach Goring said of the coaching change. “I think the Gophers are still very much involved for Tyus [Jones].”

The premier pool of local talent includes 2014 recruits Jones, Robbinsdale Cooper’s Rashad Vaughn and De La Salle’s Reid Travis.

Minnesota’s chances for those three are considered slim because other potential suitors include legendary basketball programs like Kentucky, Kansas and Duke.

Considerably younger and less experienced than the coaches of those programs, Pitino will try to compete on the recruiting field before he gets a shot on the court.

“There’s a fine line you have to walk because of [Pitino’s] youth in recruiting,” West Virginia assistant coach Ron Everhart said. “You’re so close to the players, there could be a misconception.”

Everhart hired Pitino to his first assistant coaching job at Northeastern in 2005.

“One thing [Pitino] did best was draw the line between relationships by coaching the kids as a professional,” Everhart said.

The departure of Gophers big men Trevor Mbakwe and Rodney Williams leaves Pitino with a lack of immediate depth in his frontcourt. A third big man, Andre Ingram, will graduate in May.

The three recruits are among the best talents to come out of Minnesota recently, but only one — Travis — can play in the frontcourt.

But Pitino’s colleagues say his style of play, which he preaches as a fast-paced, run-and-gun offense, will need immense depth at the guard position.

Minnesota has three available scholarships for 2013 after Pitino signed Daquein McNeil last week. Pitino recruited McNeil while coaching at Florida International University.

McNeil, a guard, will bolster an aging Minnesota backcourt that graduated Julian Welch this year.

The Gophers recently lost two of Smith’s 2013 recruits, guard Alvin Ellis and forward Alex Foster. But that hasn’t fazed Pitino, who’s looking for his own players to fit his demanding style of play.

“I just value the right fit in recruiting,” Pitino said. “If we can get guys to stay [in Minnesota], I think it’s great for the state.”

Vermont Academy head coach Jesse Bopp, who coached McNeil for three years in high school, said guard depth is key in Pitino’s system.

“I’d imagine at Minnesota they’re going to play such a frantic pace,” Bopp said. “They’re going to play a lot of people. It’s going to be very, very hard to play 40 minutes for Richard Pitino.”

Minnesota lacks a true point guard, as Bopp said McNeil is a “pure scorer” and current Gophers floor general Andre Hollins played shooting guard through most of his high school days.

Cue dream candidate Tyus Jones.

The point guard, who’s one of the most courted recruits in the country, has narrowed his list of suitors to seven — Baylor, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, Michigan State, Ohio State and Minnesota, all of which have offered him a scholarship.

Some assert that Jones keeps Minnesota on his list to please locals as he dominates the high school courts around the state.

But the Gophers have been on Jones’ list from the start, and Goring said Pitino’s hiring doesn’t change that.

Pitino met with Jones on April 14 and with Goring the next day. Goring said the meetings “went well,” but Jones wouldn’t show which schools he was leaning toward.

“His next step is to select which schools he wants to take an official visit to,” Goring said. “Tyus said [the unofficial visit to Minnesota] went really well.”

NCAA rule changes last summer allow college recruits to begin taking official visits starting Jan. 1 of their junior year, which is 2013 for Jones.

Per NCAA rules, he can take official visits to up to five schools. Those schools will then cover travel expenses for him and his family to tour the program and its facilities.

But recruiting is a process, and unofficial visits are the first step in selling a Gophers program that is fighting mediocrity and has worse facilities than its Big Ten competitors.

First-year athletics director Norwood Teague has a master facilities plan that he says has a men’s basketball practice facility at the top of the priority list. Associate athletics director Mike Ellis said on 1500ESPN this month that the plan’s official announcement has been pushed from April to June.

Pitino said the lack of a practice facility at Minnesota is an overblown factor in recruiting and developing players.

“I’ve worked at places with practice facilities,” Pitino said. “Louisville had the nicest arena in the country. We didn’t get our players because of that. We got our players because of the people, coaching staff and players around them.”

He also said his youth won’t hurt his recruiting.

“I embrace the fact that I’m young. Hopefully I can relate to [recruits] in a different way [than other coaches] — doesn’t necessarily mean it is better.”

Dr. Date,

This guy and I have been seeing each other for a while, and we had sex for the first time this weekend. It was definitely not what I was expecting, though. I have had a lot of partners, and this experience was horrible. He is not knowledgeable about positions, the angles got messed up and his body was not sexy at all. I am a fit, petite girl, and I got buried alive by a fat dude.

I don’t want to pursue this any longer because I have had some good sex and this is definitely on the bottom of the list. If we get more serious, I fear he is going to want to become exclusive. But based on our sex, I would cheat because I am not attracted to him at all. I am not a cheater, but after we just had sex, I do not want him to think that I dumped him only because of that. I don’t want to seem full of myself even though I keep my standards quite high. What’s a girl to do?

—Lay Or Dump?

Humpy-Dumpy,

Bad sex — that stuff is the worst. I’m sorry your pleasure play with your new man left you running for the nearest exit, but that doesn’t give you the excuse to be a total brat about it. Sit  your “petite,” elliptical-toned ass down because I’ve got a big loogie of truth on the tip of my lips and aimed at your face.

I know in this day and age we often talk about doin’ the nasty like we would about a water-skiing competition. How many tricks can you do? Was it fast or slow? How quickly did you cross the finish line? The good doctor is as guilty as anyone when it comes to this attitude.

Listen, this may come as a shock to your icy soul, but for some people, sex means something. Maybe for this guy it was an expression of how much he cares about you? Chew on that for a second. You taste that? That’s the bitter, slimy taste of the

realization.

Obviously, you were attracted to this guy enough to get naked with him in the first place, so don’t use that as a cop out.

You know, after all, maybe you should break it off — anyone who is nice enough to sleep with someone so crass, pompous and morally corrupt is far too kind.

—Dr. Date

Dr. Date,

Every so often, my ex will contact me — even though we broke up two years ago. I try to keep things short and brusque with him, but in a way, I hate when he contacts me because then I start thinking about him and how much I wish we would’ve worked out and how I know that, deep down, I still have feelings for him despite some rather serious character flaws. I know it was not the right relationship for me and that a better man will come along. When the heart and mind are in conflict, it only makes sense to follow the mind. So what can I do to make my heart stop feeling little pangs when my ex tries to contact me?

—Forget Me Now

Forget,

Time heals all wounds, but it’s hard to leave the past in the past when the past keeps Facebook messaging you.

I would keep doing what you’re doing. You’re being polite but not inviting the ex-factor to invade your life or rekindle old flames.

The pangs may never stop, but the more you move forward with your own life, the fainter they will become.

Cut ties if things are too painful. If you can manage having a polite but not intrusive relationship, keeping in communication can be healthy.

—Dr. Date