DEAR MISS MANNERS: At a book club meeting at our local library, the conversation got slightly off topic for a short period of time. One of the participants said, loudly, “For (expletive’s) sake, will this ever end?”
Everyone in the group ignored her, pretending to not hear, and the conversation quickly returned to the book we had read.
My daughter (who is also in the group) and I wished we had said something to her. How could we have told her that her remark was unkind without humiliating her?
GENTLE READER: What would you have said? “If you talk like that, we’re going to wash out your mouth with soap”?
Wait -- Miss Manners just realized that that is what you could have said. Club members can make rules with consequences for violations, but they cannot randomly scold one another.
So your best response is either to ignore the remark, which is a reproof in itself, or to make a joke of it.
(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)
COPYRIGHT 2023 JUDITH MARTIN
DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106; 816-581-7500