School districts around the country, concerned that teachers can get too cozy with students on the Internet or when communicating by cell phone, are making new rules to prohibit contact. In some places, Facebook messages are a no-no, the New York Times reported yesterday. Other school administrators have outlawed text messages – or any conversation conducted on a cell phone. Citing […]
more about: relationships
‘Tis the Season for Office Holiday Parties
Rule No. 1: Wear underwear. Rule No. 2: Don’t flash it while you’re dancing wildly on top of the receptionist’s desk. You might think anyone who works in an office—as opposed to those who got fired this year for behaving inappropriately in an office setting—already knows these rules. But they’re among the Wall Street Journal’s suggestions for navigating the holiday […]
Pardon My Bed Bugs
What if you’re about to host a big family gathering and a few days before the event, one of the guests sends this email: “GUESS WHAT?! We discovered bed bugs in our apartment this morning.” Happy holidays, indeed. There I was the other day, setting the dining room table for 16, when I got the news that two guests were […]
Anonymous Online
Debate: Is it important to protect people’s rights to comment anonymously online? Or should commenters use their real names? Both sides make good arguments, as you can see from this week’s “Sunday Dialog” in the New York Times. Reasons to Require Names: 1. Cyberbullies. Anonymous comments are more likely to be “hate-filled and inflammatory.” 2. Responsibility. Sites that allow comments have the right […]
My Friend is Welcome Here. Her boyfriend? Not So Much.
This week’s reader dilemma comes from Galpal12, who wrote, “An old friend wants to visit and has asked if she and her partner can stay with me. My friend and her boyfriend have a long history of breakups. … “My husband and I don’t appreciate the way he treats her and have lost respect for him. I don’t mind that she […]
Would You Rather Interact With a Human or a Machine?
This morning on the way to work I had to stop at the bank to deposit a check. I do not—ever—deposit checks by ATM, mostly because I don’t want to learn how to do it. (I know, I know: A trained monkey could probably learn how to deposit a check in the ATM in all of 7 minutes. But I […]
Holidays or HOLYdays?
“Ms. Slatalla, your advice on holiday hosting is not only wrong, it’s rude. First off, the holidays are HOLYdays, based on religious celebration and ritual.” This week, a reader named loschinchi wrote to say it’s not OK to skip the prayer before Thanksgiving dinner just because praying might make guests uncomfortable, disagreeing with my Modern Manners column in Real Simple‘s November issue. […]
Modern Manners: Family Food Fight
“I have relatives who will bring raw meat to a family barbecue without being asked, and then insist on having the host cook it,” writes a reader named laureltanner. “They don’t like the patties the hosts use. I feel this is insulting. “Am I wrong?” laureltanner asks. ”BTW, these are the same people who will serve homemade, but pre-frozen, chicken parmigiana […]
