Miss Manners: things that "never" happened
On passing gas and asking to be excused....
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JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
This one just cracks me up. Apparently there are rules for everything, or at least etiquette rules for everything. Who knew?
Well, if you're reading here now, or at least if you are reading the link that follows, you do now.
Just pretend it didn't happen at all... them's the rules according to Miss Manners.
Here is the clip.
Linked here: Miss Manners on the topic of passed gas... (scroll down through the first question to get to the second question.... just pretend the first question never happened at all {smile})
Dear Miss Manners,
Let's say someone passes gas. They say, "Excuse me." Do you say, "You are excused"? My wife does this … I find it strange.
Gentle Reader,
Miss Manners has something even stranger for you: Etiquette's way of dealing with things that shouldn't happen is to pretend that they didn't.
So you—or, rather, that unfortunate "someone"—need not say, "Excuse me." And you are right that the response of "You are excused" has an unnecessarily imperious feel to it, as if you could equally well have refused.
Admittedly, the definition of things that shouldn't happen is arbitrary. Passing gas meets the definition, although, oddly enough, burping does not—unless you are doing it on purpose, in which case stop that this very minute.
Now, if you'll excuse me, ooops, never mind, no excuse needed....
Well, if you're reading here now, or at least if you are reading the link that follows, you do now.
Just pretend it didn't happen at all... them's the rules according to Miss Manners.
Here is the clip.
Linked here: Miss Manners on the topic of passed gas... (scroll down through the first question to get to the second question.... just pretend the first question never happened at all {smile})
Dear Miss Manners,
Let's say someone passes gas. They say, "Excuse me." Do you say, "You are excused"? My wife does this … I find it strange.
Gentle Reader,
Miss Manners has something even stranger for you: Etiquette's way of dealing with things that shouldn't happen is to pretend that they didn't.
So you—or, rather, that unfortunate "someone"—need not say, "Excuse me." And you are right that the response of "You are excused" has an unnecessarily imperious feel to it, as if you could equally well have refused.
Admittedly, the definition of things that shouldn't happen is arbitrary. Passing gas meets the definition, although, oddly enough, burping does not—unless you are doing it on purpose, in which case stop that this very minute.
Now, if you'll excuse me, ooops, never mind, no excuse needed....