The difference between friends and acquaintances is whether you'd let them see you without makeup or leave them alone in a room with your mother-in-law. My grandmother told me it was better to have one good pal than a room full of acquaintances. I know she was right; but when I want to know how I look in a new outfit or with a different hairstyle that one pal is going to tell me the truth.

Sometimes truth hurts. Whoever said you don't have to say you're sorry to pals must have been lonely. You can feel their pain - especially if you caused it.

Grammatically, we can only have one best buddy because best is a superlative. It's a one of a kind sort of thing. However, we can have as many good buddies and better buddies as possible.

We can also have as many magic buddies as possible. The magic ones are the ones you don't get to be with often enough; but when you're together, you pick up just where you left off the last time. You talk about the present and the future because you plan to share them.

On the other hand - the one with the school yearbook - get-togethers with acquaintances are full of do-you-remember-when's. Friendship is a living relationship. Eventually, acquaintances die.

True magic, of course, is when a sibling turns into a lifetime, "amiable ally". Because you've shared so many experiences and memories, sometimes a sibling can know you better than you know yourself. The true magic is that your relationship survived the sibling rivalry and your sibling lived to be an ally - not a blackmailer.

I don't understand when people say so-in-so-used to be their "closest companion". That's like saying blue used to be their favorite color. That person couldn't have been their closest companion because closest companions don't do whatever that person did to ruin the relationship.

In spite of the fact that men have never gotten over the ribbing they got when God created Eve, I think women make better companions for both women and men. We're genetically more caring and we talk about feelings.

Companions are with us in good times and in bad and they make bad times better. There's one more thing I don't understand - why friend is misspelled. It shouldn't have the word end in it. It should have the word forever. Friend should be "friever".