Dear Readers: Some of you had trouble finding my most recent column, on alcoholism. Since the latest entries are no longer part of Opinionator, the best way to locate my pieces is simply to search for my name in the Times’s search engine or go directly to my columnist page. I’ve always looked forward to reading your comments, even though the queue sometimes got so busy they had to be turned off — particularly unfortunate in this case since the 100 that were allowed were erudite and touching. Please keep your notes coming, as much as you can! I have a very busy year ahead, but I will be back to you as often as possible, even though it won’t be on a regular schedule. You can think of me as a little occasional surprise. Here’s to a productive and healthy 2014. — Dick

Meanwhile, here is where you can find that errant column and its wonderful reader comments.

Some wrote movingly of their recovery after “years of hell,” and frequently of how the drinker ruins not only himself but his family, and of despised parents who embarrassed them horribly and destroyed childhoods. (“My dad died too late. I never visit his grave.”)

Another reader, un-cured, addressing that one, says he fears that’s how he is right now to his estranged teenage daughters. One of those expressing gratitude for the column hoped that it just might help with a losing-the-game relative.

I urge you to read as many of the comments as you can take. There are some chillers.

From your emails and from other in-person comments, it seems to be a rare thing not to have been touched by problem drinking somewhere among family or friends or business associates.