And the mechanics of Twitter offer only awkward partial solutions to that problem.
No longer would you have to watch someone offer the awkward defense, "No, it's cool!
"Cold Weather" offers the awkward intimacies and quirky bits of daily life that rarely qualify as dramatic material in a Hollywood movie.
On hand at Friday night's handshakes was the energy secretary, Chris Huhne, who offered an awkward endorsement for a deal with a bunch of Russian oligarchs to drill for fossil fuels in the Arctic wilderness.
When he makes jokes about an awkward offer of cocaine or the connection between happiness and shallowness (two famous targets from "Annie Hall"), he risks seeming, like the actors in Mr. Allen's films who mimic their director, overly familiar.
But even on the concert stage, whether in white tie or blue jeans, Bostridge offers such an awkward physical presence that we are never quite sure what to make of him.
Each Stack — bar Facebook, for now — offers the same awkward bargain: commit wholly & wholeheartedly to our ecosystem, and we will better your life.
Ambitious Republicans really ought to keep their traps shut or, like Messrs Graham and Santorum, offer Ms Jenner an awkward embrace.
Another local favorite with an older feel is Caru' cu Bere (Strada Stavropoleos 5; 40-21-313-7560; www.carucubere.ro), a beautifully restored neo-Gothic beer hall with stained-glass windows, Soviet-style service and pirouetting ballroom dancers who offer diners an (often awkward) dance.
Whether for Argo, Zero Dark Thirty or Homeland, the projects' creators provided gushing thank-you's to the heroic agency and its covert operators - in Argo's case taking this to the level of pure fetish: A real-life CIA officer was brought out like a museum exhibit and he proceeded to offer a stiff and awkward introduction to the film based on his involvement in the Iran hostage crisis.
