Advice from Judith Martin, Nicholas Ivor Martin and Jacobina Martin.
: My husband and I own a condo at the beach with two other couples, dividing up the weeks among us. Our agreement is that, at the end of their week, each couple will leave the condo in tiptop shape -- fresh sheets, scrubbed bathrooms, vacuumed carpets, etc.During the summer months, my husband and I frequently invite friends to join us during our week.
Some guests have volunteered, unsolicited, to clean their bathroom and change the sheets on their bed. Others seem to be oblivious to what needs to be done after their departure. Would it be unseemly to ask them to participate in some of the cleanup activities?If the guests are your husband’s boss and his third wife, you may wish to do the cleaning yourselves after they leave.
Whether the resulting event would be fair or foul would, she supposes, depend on the moods of all involved -- and whether sustenance was withheld pending Jethro’s arrival.: I am an 89-year-old lady. My daughter is taking me on my very first cruise. She insists that I must wear nail polish on my toenails if I wear open-toe sandals.
I have not worn any kind of nail polish since I was in my 20s. I do not want to polish my toenails, or my fingernails, either. My toenails are neatly cut regularly by my podiatrist.Cruises involve a lot of free time. So while Miss Manners does not want to pick a fight, she does think it would be well to establish from the start that the primary activity on this cruise will not be Telling Mama How To Behave.
If “Thank you, but I don’t like to wear nail polish” is not working, you may have to escalate to, “In my day, ladies did not do that.” Or even, “I’ll be at the bar.”Miss Manners, written by Judith Martin and her two perfect children, Nicholas Ivor Martin and Jacobina Marin, has chronicled the continuous rise and fall of American manners since 1978. Send your questions to [email protected].
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