Etiquetteer must be feeling a bit bossy today. What are the central tenets, really, of what Etiquetteer believes? It could be summed up in this way: consider the impact you have on other people.
- Nobody cares how you feel or what you want, so you might as well behave.
- Look respectable. Tuck in that shirttail and those bra straps. Nobody wants to know about the waistband of your underwear . . . and if they do, you might not want to know them.
- Dress appropriately to the particular situation. Just because you don't feel like putting on black tie is no excuse to go to a ball in a track suit.*
- Get out of the way.
- Be quiet, both in general and especially on your cellphone. No one cares about your "private" conversation.
- Retain your sense of humor. That's usually key to getting out of most etiquette jams.
- When responding in anger, whether in person or through correspondence, ask yourself if you want a successful resolution or just a chance to express anger.
- Travel light.
- When in doubt, send a Lovely Note.
Now that's out of the way, Etiquetteer is going to spend the rest of the day bringing his summer whites out of storage since Memorial Day (observed) is tomorrow.
*Once upon a time, if one didn't have the correct clothes for a particular function, one did not attend said function. (Consider the plight of Judy Garland's beau in Meet Me in St. Louis, who suddenly couldn't take her to a Christmas ball because his father's dress suit was locked up at a tailor's.) Nowadays this sort of Perfect Propriety is considered fussy and exclusive by far too many people - but not Etiquetteer.