Jangchub wrote:
So, what I'm saying is, why don't parents make sure this is a
preliminary function of being a lady or gentleman?



My dear girl, what planet are you on? Most parents don't teach the
little darlings diddly-squat about being ladies and gentlemen, only
about being a world-class censored. I suppose I should blame the
grandparents, because the parents don't know how to be ladies and
gentlemen, either!

It used to amaze me no end, we'd have an office party in an expensive
restaurant, and some of my younger colleagues apparently had never used
a knife and fork before. I'm not talking about confusedly picking the
wrong fork out of a selection of 6, but handling the utensils as if
they've only ever before eaten with their hands. Oh, yeah, that's
right, they eat all their meals at McD's and Taco Bell; they *don't*
ever use a fork.

Ginger and I found that it did no good to simply glare at them when they
committed a social faux pas, because they were quite sincere in their
cluelessness "why are you looking at me like that?" (Not like our
generation, where we knew EX-actly why the older generation were rolling
their eyes.) deep sigh, shoot each other the look "you want to explain
it or shall I?" and apparently be the first person who had ever given
them any sort of etiquette lesson. (Yes, child, the word please has a
use outside the phrase "oh puh-leeez". As in the sentence "please do
not wipe your snot on your bare hand and then use that same hand to pass
the salt".)

--
Karen C - California
Editor/Proofreader www.IntlProofingConsortium.com

Finished 7/27/08 - MLI Christmas Visit

WIP: Oriental Kimono (Janlynn), MLI The Teacher (gift to
the library), Bethany Angel (Marbek)
Retrieved from UFO pile: Marbek's Snow Angel, MLI Farmers Market

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