I tend to use "please advise" as shorthand for "you're the boss, and I know you'd throw a fit if I made this decision on my own, so tell me what to do, please."

Me, too.

I never realized those two words were so loaded. I tend to use them a bunch, meaning - here is the info I have and the options as I see them, the benefit of your advice would be appreciated.

Now I'm going to be worried that others think I was being all passive aggressive. Gah. More worries.

I don't understand why that phrase is bad? I mean, sometimes you are not the person who can make that decision so it makes sense to ask the person who is.

I'm with Fred and ita - I see it as more of a "ball's in your court" thing. So, there is an element of washing-my-hands-of-the-decision-making, but not really P-A as such.

I use it as a "ball's in your court" thing as well - kind of a, well I've done MY part indication.

Another vote for ball/court. It's sort of "here's my bit, now it's your call" rather than anything necessarily passive/aggressive.

I'm a ball/court gal myself.

And we'd better keep Cass away from that car.

Is Yahoo!Mail making anyone else login every five seconds, or am I just special?

It has been making me do it and has been driving me crazy all day.

So, LexisNexis people, is this funny? Slashdot has it under Comedy:

"The politicization of Bush's Justice Department, which this week was officially determined to be illegal, has a funny side too. Sometime in 2005-2006, White House Liaison Jan Williams attended a seminar on LexisNexis searches, and wrote one herself. When she left, she passed it on to her successor Monica Goodling in an email. Justin Mason, author of SpamAssassin, is skeptical about its accuracy:

[First name of a candidate]! and pre/2 [last name of a candidate] w/7 bush or gore or republican! or democrat! or charg! or accus! or criticiz! or blam! or defend! or iran contra or clinton or spotted owl or florida recount or sex! or controvers! or racis! or fraud! or investigat! or bankrupt! or layoff! or downsiz! or PNTR or NAFTA or outsourc! or indict! or enron or kerry or iraq or wmd! or arrest! or intox! or fired or sex! or racis! or intox! or slur! or arrest! or fired or controvers! or abortion! or gay! or homosexual! or gun! or firearm!

Needless to say, when asked about it, Williams first said she didn't remember ever seeing it, then said she'd used an edited version just once. LexisNexis records show she used it, as shown, 25 times."

eta: [link]

Whenever I get "please advise", it usually means a disdainful "something's broken/not working and it's ALL YOUR FAULT."

I get these, but often spelled "please advice" - always makes me read it a couple times. Then I offer my advice.