Navigating cultural differences overseas can make for fascinating moments: for example, figuring out whether proper greeting etiquette calls for a bow, handshake or a kiss on the cheek.
Judith Kallos, who runs a site on Internet etiquette called netmanners.com, said the No. 1 complaint is that "people feel they're being ignored".
And indeed, Mother-in-Law-to-Be, you're right on the money in asserting that traditional etiquette calls for the "traditional" (what your daughter would call "paternalistic" and "sexist") form of address.
By Joanne Kaufman The New Yorker, January 16 , 1995P. 29 Signed Talk story about Nancy Tuckerman, the co-author of a new book on etiquette called "Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette", which is an updated version of Vanderbilt's 1952 guide.
And on each stage, longstanding etiquette calls for no flash photography, ringing cellphones, audience chatter or crowd movement, any of which can distract the performers and throw them off.
Proper etiquette calls for you to ask "Is someone sitting here?" Then the gentleman should gather his belongings and stand (rather than swivel his bony knees so you can trip over them) to let you sit.
That's why modern etiquette calls for any committed couple to be addressed with both names on one line, joined by "and," as in: Mr. Neil Patrick Harris and Mr. David Burtka (prohibited from legally marrying in California) or Ms. Ellen DeGeneres and Ms. Portia DeGeneres (It's up to the couple to decide their preference for the name order).
Proper etiquette calls for truthfulness and authenticity which, in turn, makes re-gifting an insincere gesture.
Chav Etiquette calls on how one must look as rich as possible, even though this ironically makes them look really poor.
But I'm afraid, Karen, this is what we in the etiquette business call a high-class problem: Much better that the whippersnappers are doing the right thing that calls for your thanks in the first place, right?
