15 March 2012

Book Suggestion: Emily Post's Social Etiquette for the Truly Petty

Addresses such quandaries as:

- Whether to invite a person that you do not like to a party that you are hosting for someone the unliked for person is friends with.

- How to keep your story straight when lying to persons at varying levels of the pecking order about why you are unable to attend a social function.

- How to make it seem like the reason you started sitting at a desk much further away has nothing to do with your dislike for the person that you moved away from, and everything to do with your allergies associated with their side of the room.

- Excuses for skipping important social functions, matched for appropriateness: boyfriend's best friend's going away party (long day at work); boyfriend's sister's engagement party (work deadline); co-worker's bachelorette party (your parents are in town); ex-girlfriend's ex-best friend's birthday party (going upstate for the weekend)

- How to continue to have your needs catered to by someone you have dissed, or dis repeatedly, and not feel bad about it. 

- Facebook status updates and tweets: how thinly veiled a statement can you get away with when you know someone/everyone will see it and know who/what you are not so subtly taking a dig at?

And many more!