We’re talking tradition here, for heaven’s sake. Not literary analysis. Do you consider “Good morning” to be a weather report? - Judith Martin

Miss Manners has always believed that people who do not acknowledge presents are annoyed at receiving them, and she respects that preference.

There is no known correct way to eat pistachio nuts. Nevertheless, they are delicious. The pistachio nut must therefore be Nature’s way of teaching us self-control. If so, it doesn’t work.

In a fit of exasperation, Miss Manners once demanded of a six-year-old person how it could be so childish and was forced to admit the justice of its reply, “I'm a child."