A couple of weeks ago (well before Earth Day) I raised the question on this blog of whether traditional thank you notes are becoming obsolete. A few readers may have noticed my gentle attempt to sway opinion when I suggested: “So maybe it has become wasteful—or, dare I say, impolite?—to cut down another forest so we can mail anachronistic paper thank you notes.”
“Wrong!” you answered (pretty much universally).
Part of me can’t believe I even have the gall to ask that question. My grandmother would be turning over in her grave if she read blogs. But the other night, at a restaurant where I was sitting at a big round table with six other women—a mix of old friends and new acquaintances—the topic of thank you notes came up and …
In the never-ending annals of thank-you note etiquette, one of the stickiest issues is what to do if you’ve sent a gift and not heard anything in response.
Of all the questions submitted by my Modern Manners column readers, one of the most frequently asked involves the ever-changing but (thankfully) undying art of the thank-you note. When is it necessary? When is it too late to send one? Is an email thank-you okay? The list goes on and on, but I have my own thank-you note pet peeve that I have yet to hear from one of my readers, so I thought I’d share it here:
