DEAR ABBY: Would you please publish again your letter on tickling? I have just returned from visiting my daughter and her husband, and he tickles his two little girls too often. He says they must like it, because they laugh. It is very distressing to me. -- WORRIED GRANDMOTHER IN KNOXVILLE, TENN.
DEAR WORRIED GRANDMOTHER: You are right to be concerned about your son-in-law's behavior. Pediatric specialists say that excessive tickling stimulates children inappropriately and should be discouraged. Remind him that in ancient times, tickling was used as a method of torture. Read on:
DEAR ABBY: How right you are to point out that constantly tickling someone is cruel and should not be tolerated. My Irish grandmother told me at least 50 years ago of a situation that took place near her hometown in Ireland.
A neighbor had at least two wives pass away before anyone paid much attention to it. Then another neighbor reported hearing hysterical laughter coming from that house. Well, it was later determined that the man had been tying his wives to the bedpost, and tickling the soles of their bare feet with a feather! He continued until the hysteria did them in. In truth, they were tickled to death. -- PAT HOLLINGSWORTH, BRITISH COLUMBIA