Author: L.A. Plume

Dear L. A. Plume, I attended a meeting the other evening, and a woman whom I’d never met sat down next to me. A complete stranger, she proceeded to point out people in the room and tell me about them. Some of the people I knew, and her “gossip” wasn’t true. I was so completely taken aback by the situation that I just didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing. What I really wanted to say was that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones… that her reputation is similar to a French lace curtain – in other words, has lots of holes in it. It’s a small town, and even though I had never actually met this woman, her own reputation had preceded her. Should I have said anything? Bunny

Recently, I’ve received a number of challenging questions about dog etiquette – not my specialty! I’ve gathered them together here and am hoping you readers can help me out. – L.A. Plume Dear LAP, My mother wants to come to visit for ten days. First of all, that’s too long. But she lives far away and wants to “make the drive worth her while.” However, the real problem is that she refuses to travel without her dogs – two Newfoundlands. When she gets here and we want to go anywhere, she will insist that the dogs have to go with us; they cannot be left at home alone. As you can imagine, this creates havoc with invitations.

Dear L. A. Plume, Our son is getting married this fall. My husband and I have invited him, his fiancé, and her parents to our beach cottage for a weekend. My husband wants to take our son and her father fishing for the day with a guide. When I extended the invitation for the husband, the girl’s mother announced that she and her daughter would go fishing also. The invitation was for the men only, as a sort of bonding day; also the guide charges $100 per person.

Dear Ms. Plume, We have been invited to an afternoon pool party. Do we need to take a hostess...

Dear L. A. Plume, The other night I went to the annual birdhouse auction. Although I’m not...

Dear L. A., I was recently introduced to a man by a mutual friend. He seemed nice enough when he...

Dear L. A. Plume, Recently while at one of my town’s nicer nightspots, my boyfriend and I...

Dear Ms. Plume, The husband of a friend died suddenly and I didn’t know what to do for her;...

I have been asked by the Coastal Companion Bird Sanctuary to say a few words on bird etiquette. If...

As grown-ups, perhaps we are just supposed to “know better”… to be intrinsically, intuitively...