Question: One of my roommates, “Liz,” is a definite morning person, and she has a habit of waking up before her alarm clock and going to take a shower without turning it off. Practically every day, either my other roommate or I are woken up by Liz’s alarm and have to get up and shut it off. We’ve tried talking to her about it, but I don’t think she thinks it’s a big deal because every day she “forgets” again. Yesterday morning my other roommate, “Sarah,” couldn’t take it anymore and ended up smashing Liz’s alarm clock when it went off again. When Liz came out of the shower, she and Sarah got into a huge fight. Liz wants Sarah to apologize and buy her a new alarm, but Sarah wants Liz to apologize. Neither of them are speaking to each other now. What do I do?

– Unhappy Rommate

Chick: While I normally would tell you not to get involved because this problem is between Liz and Sarah, I know how difficult it can be when the people you’re living with are fighting. However tempting it is to choose sides (who wouldn’t want to smash Liz’s alarm?!), that will only end up isolating Liz and prolonging the fighting. Tell both girls that it’s killing you that they’re not speaking, and that they both need to apologize: Liz shouldn’t have ignored your complaints and Sarah shouldn’t have broken Liz’s alarm clock. Hopefully they’ll be mature enough to solve things for the sake of a tension-free room, if not for their own sake.

Dick: This is what happens when females have to interact with each other, one of them gets angry and breaks something and the other one gets overly emotional. Girls are crazy in the head, no matter what is going on it is always a life ending crises. The luckiest member of the room is the alarm clock that got smashed because now it is spared hearing the constant bitching. My suggestion is to get a bunch of friends together, set up a ring and let them duke it out till the problem is resolved. Or have a room orgy, that way everyone will be more satisfied with the whole situation.