To be fair, I had no recollection of this match. She requested whether or not I remembered, and gave the impression reasonably stunned and offended when I mentioned I didn’t.
After the dinner, a circle of relatives member advised me that I must’ve simply nodded and mentioned, “Oh, yes, I remember, what a pleasant afternoon,” or one thing like that. I was fearful that I could be stuck out in a lie — I’m now not a excellent liar — and simply confessed that I didn’t remember. What do you suppose I must have executed?
Certainly now not asserted one thing that may temporarily be published as unfaithful.
Taking severe offense when any person fails to remember you calls for there to were sufficient touch {that a} affordable individual would remember — a couple of introductions, for instance, or having been married.
A unmarried, long-ago dialog, even one in all a number of hours, does now not appear to qualify. However, Miss Manners cautions you to remember that nor is it a praise to be forgotten. What your reaction lacked was an apology for forgetting, adopted through a pleasant alternate of matter.
Dear Miss Manners: We hire out rooms in our house, and all tenants pitch in with chores. We are a bit of like a combined circle of relatives.
My husband got here right into a group room (the kitchen) the place a tenant and I have been already provide. He proceeded to lecture me, pronouncing I had to let the tenants find out about doing the dishes and now not letting them pile up.
The tenant spoke up and mentioned he were doing dishes, and didn’t care who had dirtied them.
At this, my husband were given irate and mentioned: “This is a conversation between me and my wife. If I want your input, I will ask for it.”
I consider my husband was within the unsuitable, and that if he sought after a non-public dialog, we must now not have had it in a group space with a tenant provide. Please advise us on the correct etiquette for personal conversations.
Have them in personal, this means that out of earshot of the tenants. Miss Manners additionally does now not glance kindly on barking at tenants, trade companions or family members, actual or assumed.
Dear Miss Manners: As a bodily therapist, I meet many of us. Sometimes I have no idea learn how to pronounce a brand new affected person’s surname.
We clinicians introduce ourselves through our first names, however I really feel it could be disrespectful to greet a shopper with their first identify till requested to take action, particularly at a primary assembly. What could be a well mannered method to cope with any person and ask for the proper pronunciation in their identify?
“How do you do? I want to say your name correctly, so could you help me by telling me how you pronounce it?”
New Miss Manners columns are posted Monday via Saturday on washingtonpost.com/advice. You can ship inquiries to Miss Manners at her site, missmanners.com. You too can apply her @ActualMissManners.