What you have when everyone wears the same playclothes for all occasions, is addressed by nickname, expected to participate in Show And Tell, and bullied out of any desire form privacy, is not democracy; it is kindergarten.

Email is very informal, a memo. But I find that not signing off or not having a salutation bothers me.

Miss Manners herself, while never rude, is given to pulling a fast pinch in the way of a handshake on those who believe in kissing on, not even the first date, but the first sighting.

Honesty has come to mean the privilege of insulting you to your face without expecting redress.

Chaperons, even in their days of glory, were almost never able to enforce morality; what they did was to force immorality to be discreet. This is no small contribution.

everyone old enough to have a secret is entitled to have some place to keep it.

The etiquette question that troubles so many fastidious people New Year's Day is: How am I ever going to face those people again?