Mia

Q: I'm in my early 20s and working at my first job. When I started, I was told numerous times by friends and others to avoid interoffice dating. But of course, on my first day there, I noticed a beautiful brunette girl. We ended up dating, and she admitted that she had recently dated another guy in the office, that things had ended badly and that he had certain . . . ahem . . . sensitive pictures of her. He wouldn't leave her alone, so she was forced to go to HR, and he was moved to a separate part of the company.

Q: I've been dating a woman for about a year now and we're headed toward marriage. Everything is nearly perfect except in one area: Cooking. My love enjoys cooking but is terrible at it. I have suffered in silence - it's usually only once a week - but if we marry, I can't imagine spending my life eating her cooking. I'm not very good at it myself, but I can make meals that are edible, at least. She really enjoys being in the kitchen, and I know she'd be crushed if I told her how bad her cooking is. I don't want to mess this up. Any solutions?

Steve is a 50-something married man who's been around the block. Mia is a 20-something single immersed in the Center City dating scene. They may not agree, but they have plenty of answers. If you'd like an answer to your romantic troubles, e-mail them at S&M@phillynews.com or write: S&M c/o Daily News, Box 7788, Philadelphia, PA 19101. Q: I've been been friends with a group of guys since grade school. Now we're all graduating from college, in our 20s. Some of us are getting married, others are enjoying the single life.

SUNDAY IS New Year's Day, so we asked advice columnists Steve and Mia to offer resolutions to improve readers' romantic prospects in 2012. Steve: Avoid romance with anyone who has more problems than you do. Mia: Date outside your comfort zone. If you're doing the same thing with the same kind of people and it's not working, try a different social or ethnic circle. Steve: Never date a co-worker. If things go bad - and they usually do - you mess up your social life and your work life, too. Mia: Get online!

Q: Mia, I PRAY you are as hot as I imagine you are, woman. I'm picturing you as a milky-skinned brunette with a lovely figure, with an arrogant kind of look to your face. The type that turn freaks like myself on. But the reason why it struck me to contact you this time out of all the other times I've read you and the dude's pieces is because your advice was sooo dead on. Yes, sex with clothing on is exactly what you said it is! I'm toasting to YOU tonight! Mia: You're right about some of what you're imagining.

What's trendy to nibble when you're tired of tapas? At Mia's, the new restaurant at the Warwick Hotel, they're touting novel noshes they call mezzano. The Italian word, which translates as "middle," originated with early spice traders as a term to describe the cuisines of their Middle Eastern and Mediterranean neighbors. That tells you the background of the foods displayed on Mia's 25-foot-long bar. If the bar isn't crowded - and it wasn't at the time of my late lunch - you can walk up and down casing the goodies that are lined up there in big, colorful bowls.

Q After 10 years of marriage, my husband and I have divorced. I'm in my 40s and wonder what kind of men are out there and how easy it is to find one for a serious relationship. Your thoughts? Steve: As Meg said in "The Big Chill," "They're either married or gay. And if they're not gay, they've just broken up with the most wonderful woman in the world. Or they've just broken up with a bitch who looks exactly like me. " Mia: If you're a vibrant 40-something woman, you'll do just fine in the dating market.

Steve is a 50-something married man who's been around the block. Mia is a 20-something single immersed in the Center City dating scene. They may not agree, but they have plenty of answers. If you'd like an answer to your romantic troubles, e-mail them at S&M@phillynews.com or write: S&M c/o Daily News, Box 7788, Philadelphia, PA 19101. Q: I am looking for an older gentleman but don't know where to look. I know you have a younger audience, but believe me, you don't die just because you are a divorced female in her early 60s (see Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Fonda)

You're a cotton briefs guy? I ask because I'm assuming the skimpy silk trunks belong to some other dude. If that's the case, then you have every right to be alarmed. You have to talk with your wife and find out whose boxers she's been toting around with her. Try to do it in a nonconfrontational way, so she'll open up. If that doesn't work, get counseling. I wish you luck! Steve: I'm sure your wife has a perfectly logical explanation for why you found a push-up bra and some guy's silk boxers in the basement.

Q: My husband and I are very busy - work and kids take up a lot of our daily lives. I recently found that if I want sex and I link my husband to a porn site I like, I get very good results. My friends who are my age (40-plus) complain about not getting enough sex. I told them how I use porn sites to encourage my husband. I got very negative reactions. Is it really abnormal for women to look at porn? Why do people find this so strange? Steve: No, it's not abnormal for women to enjoy porn, although the porn women favor differs from porn geared toward men. Not sure why anyone would find this strange, other than the standard societal hypocrisy on the subject of sex. If it's helping your marriage, that strikes me as a good thing.

Q: I am an extremely happily married woman. I come from a large, loving family. My husband says he was raised by wolves: a workaholic father and a disinterested, abusive mother and, later, a domineering stepmother. He has told me he never knew what real love was until he met me. The problem is his sister, who does not want to be a part of our lives. My children insist I invite her to family functions but she always refuses. I invited her to my daughter's high school graduation party at my daughter's request.

Q: My husband's ex-wife always guilt-trips her daughter into going all out for her on her birthday and on Mother's Day. My stepdaughter gets a very small allowance, so her dad is the one who has to pay. I think this is his ex-wife's way of sticking it to my husband, above and beyond the hefty child support and alimony she already gets. I want to put a stop to this, but I don't want to be a wicked stepmother. Please respond quickly. I overhead my stepdaughter tell my husband that her mother wants a certain Michael Kors watch, and the thought of that going on the credit card we both pay for makes me want to scream.

Q: I am a 22-year-old college graduate with big dreams. My only problem is this love triangle I have put myself in for the past five years. At the age of 15 I met this young girl who was clean, smart, beyond beautiful, trustworthy – and to top it off, I was her first sex partner. We spent a lot of time together during my teenage years and I started to get bored with her. I put her through a lot of hurt and BS, but she still stood by my side. At age 17, I met another very pretty girl.

Q: In 1978, I shared a platonic beer with a young woman whom I'll call "J. " Our friendship was kind of brother-and-sister. Recently, we ran into one another at a Rod Stewart concert. This platonic relationship has gotten very, very close to the next level and it feels so weird on both ends. Do we proceed to enter into a place where there is no turning back or do we keep our incredible platonic friendship? P.S. Her lips are softer than any lips I've ever kissed. Steve: Platonic?

Q: This is a non-romance relationship question, but I hope you can answer it anyway. I work in a small office with 10 employees. We are always busy, but our direct supervisor spends most of his day disrupting the workplace by flirting with the young female employees and telling stories about his past jobs. I don't want to be rude to him, but he wastes a lot of my time and I get behind in my work. If I tell the big boss, I'm afraid he'll do nothing and my supervisor will make my life miserable.

Q: My husband has a bad case of "keeping up with the Joneses. " Every time our neighbor buys a new car or fixes his house up, he feels the need to do it too. We are already deeply in debt, and when I complain about it, he says I shouldn't worry, because we'll pay it off. I get the sense that he's envious of what our neighbors have and somehow feels inferior if he can't match them. Any suggestions on how to break him of this habit? STEVE: What's he gonna do if your neighbor divorces and gets a younger wife?

Q: I am a divorced mother in her 40s. After I turned 40, I realized that I had become completely invisible to members of the opposite sex. It was a very odd feeling. They could look right through me and see things behind me. When I was in my 20s, I had no shortage of suitors. But now that I am single again, at this age, what are my chances of finding anyone besides leftover losers? Mia: Your chances are great, provided you're not looking for guys who notice you for your looks alone - and you're not doing the same to them.

Q: My husband and I are very busy - work and kids take up a lot of our daily lives. I recently found that if I want sex and I link my husband to a porn site I like, I get very good results. My friends who are my age (40-plus) complain about not getting enough sex. I told them how I use porn sites to encourage my husband. I got very negative reactions. Is it really abnormal for women to look at porn? Why do people find this so strange? Steve: No, it's not abnormal for women to enjoy porn, although the porn women favor differs from porn geared toward men. Not sure why anyone would find this strange, other than the standard societal hypocrisy on the subject of sex. If it's helping your marriage, that strikes me as a good thing.

Q: I've been dating a woman for about a year now and we're headed toward marriage. Everything is nearly perfect except in one area: Cooking. My love enjoys cooking but is terrible at it. I have suffered in silence - it's usually only once a week - but if we marry, I can't imagine spending my life eating her cooking. I'm not very good at it myself, but I can make meals that are edible, at least. She really enjoys being in the kitchen, and I know she'd be crushed if I told her how bad her cooking is. I don't want to mess this up. Any solutions?

BEIRUT - The U.S. military has recovered the remains of the last U.S. service member missing in Iraq, ending a nearly six-year ordeal involving shadowy militants and a tragic love story, his family said Sunday. About 1 a.m. Sunday, a U.S. officer knocked on the door of the family home in Ann Arbor, Mich., with news that Army Staff Sgt. Ahmed Al-Taie was confirmed dead. The officer had no details yet on how or when he died, said Entifadh Qanbar, Al-Taie's uncle and an aide to Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi.