Happy
New Year and to all the best of
manners. Here’s the 2014 hit list of thoughts about how we can make life more
pleasant for friends, family, fellow citizens and ourselves. A dear friend,
Monte Mathews of
Monte’s Ham contributed greatly to this post. (See numbers 5
through 11)
- Perhaps we can cut in half the half-versations we
have to hear throughout the day. Why share your mundane daily events with
others? Have you no shame?
- Emails are expedient and a great way to avoid confrontation,
but returning a phone call (Remember those?) with an email is lame and
rude.
- Keep your pets to yourself. This is really about
dogs. I saw a man get into a cab earlier this week with all the muck still
on the ground; he let the dog jump onto the seat. I can safely assume he
didn’t wipe the seat off when they got out. No one wants to wear your
dog’s paw prints on their coats. Same goes for small children footprints.
- Hand-free yawning has got to stop. It’s unattractive
and can be unpleasant when a whiff of bad breath comes out.
- Never
take an smartphone or any other electronic device into a meeting. It is just plain rude, implies you've got better things to do and it is an interruption to any reasonable discourse.
- A personal thank you note or letter is even more
prized
now that people think that an email will suffice or even worse,
no thank you at all.
- No one should expect email responses the same day.
A 24-hour time frame is the bare minimum for answering
emails--not 24 minutes or seconds.
- The older you are, the better you must dress:
As the Duchess of Windsor once said "When you get
old, you must be very, very clean and dress very, very well.
- I must admit, as someone who grew up having to
give their seats up on public transportation to anyone older
than one's self which means in the case of a child, pretty well
everyone) why children, is a mystery to me, in New York should be seated regardless
of the age of any of their fellow passengers.
- Never chew gum in public. If you want to know
why,
watch yourself in a mirror chewing gum once and you
will never do it again.
- The use of foul language diminishes any conversation
but most of all, it diminishes what people think of you.