DEAR MISS MANNERS: What’s a well mannered technique to refuse a hug with buddies or strangers? What to do when my proffered handshake is batted away and a hug pursued as a substitute?
Some males, particularly, appear to wish to hug me due to my giant chest, and it appears extra like sexual assault than a pleasant gesture. And there are particular ladies (whom I don’t contemplate buddies) who’ve behaved badly to me prior to now, and I don’t want them to the touch me.
Is the recommendation the identical in both case? And what about after they chase me?
GENTLE READER: Run.
No pleasant gesture ought to come at the price of private security. In case your proffered hand is batted away, step again shortly and perform a little bow (to get a long way between you), after which mutter by the use of clarification, “Something is going around and I don’t want you to catch it.”
Miss Manners will depart it to your discretion to inform these folks that that “something” is their salacious conduct.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: We have been out to dinner with one other couple, and my spouse turned horrified after I took the ultimate sip of my cocktail, together with an ice dice, after which proceeded to return the ice dice to the glass.
The ultimate sip is the most effective sip! Is that this so horrible?
GENTLE READER: Sure.
By all means, take that closing sip. However Miss Manners should insist that you simply discover a approach to take action with out the ice coming again up bare.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: As a preteen, I used to be informed by somebody that it was impolite to eat one meals on my plate at a time — that I used to be supposed to maneuver round my plate, consuming bites of every merchandise in succession.
I like having fun with all of 1 meals earlier than shifting on. The one factor I can liken it to is watching a TV present, and somebody adjustments the channel in the midst of it. I wish to end the present I’m watching earlier than shifting on to the following.
The day I used to be informed this, I made a silent vow to myself that I’d at all times eat one meals at a time, the way in which I favor. However I’m questioning you probably have ever heard of the rule this particular person was making an attempt to impose on me.
I’d assume it’s impolite to surveil different folks’s consuming, however then, this particular person was nonetheless making an attempt to do that after I was in my 60s. I’m now not on this particular person’s life, however the query has nagged at me for many years. Who was proper?
GENTLE READER: You.
Even Miss Manners doesn’t have opinions on the order through which you eat your dinner — and positively would by no means monitor it.
So long as you aren’t making an attempt to devour the bread bowl earlier than the soup or making equally chaotic selections, she helps your selections — each on the way you select to eat and for distancing your self from this nagging particular person.
