DEAR MISS MANNERS: Our city is a typical suburb of a giant metropolis. It was initially settled by German farmers, however through the years, it has turn into an prosperous sprawl of subdivisions and strip malls.
Lots of the unique household farms have been honored in road names. Lingering descendants of the households, or those that knew them, adhere to the unique pronunciations, however the majority of the neighborhood not does. For instance: Previous-timers insist that Mueller Avenue ought to be pronounced “Miller,” not “Mew-ler.”
The factor is, I’ve lived on this city for the reason that early Nineteen Seventies and by no means heard anybody confer with that road as “Miller.” If somebody gave me instructions and mentioned, “Turn on Miller Street,” I might have bypassed the “Mueller” signal and saved wanting.
I really feel that naming a road after a household is gorgeous, however that the household’s proper to police pronunciation is proscribed. The entire level of naming streets in any respect is to make navigation simpler. If the neighborhood at massive has tacitly agreed to name a road “Mew-ler” as a result of that’s the extra intuitive, modern interpretation of the spelling, then that turns into the proper method to say the road title.
Those that pronounce these streets “wrong” are being informed, on social media, that they owe it to those households to undertake the “correct” pronunciation. This appears pointless to me — and I’ve a Dutch final title that nobody can pronounce with out steerage.
GENTLE READER: Snapping at folks to do one thing that has not been performed in a long time is unlikely to be efficient. Much better to make use of one of many few benefits Miss Manners sees to social media — which is that individuals can decide out of group conversations about such points, slightly than feeding the flames by persevering with to argue about them.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: I’m a person who’s 6-foot-6 and 62 years outdated. My whole life, I’ve discovered myself bent in half when greeting ladies for whom a welcome hug is acceptable.
My aunties, cousins, sisters and any variety of others would possibly throw their arms up, initiating a hug.
When ladies (of any age) hug me, they all the time wish to put their arms above my very own — their arms are principally round my neck in the course of the hug. Image me bent in half hugging my 4-foot-11 mother-in-law.
I’m questioning, is that this simply hugging etiquette? Would I be in violation if I simply saved my arms above theirs, permitting myself much less of a stoop? Is it a rule or customized?
GENTLE READER: It’s not a rule, and Miss Manners provides you allow to bend solely so far as is constant together with your ideas and your again.
