One can become quite proficient at this amiable patter; the trick is to omit the instructive parts when attending formal dinner parties outside the h… - Judith Martin

A small wedding is not necessarily one to which very few people are invited. It is one to which the person you are addressing is not invited.

Miss Manners corrects only upon request. Then she does it from a distance, with no names attached, and no personal relationship, however distant, between the corrector and the correctee. She does not search out errors like a policeman leaping out of a speed trap. When Miss Manners observes people behaving rudely, she behaves politely to them, and then goes home and snickers about them afterward.

HIDEOUS PRESENTS DONATED BY ADULTS These should be displayed and cherished in proportion to the sacredness of the bond between giver and receiver, divided by the number of miles they live apart.