Um, hello?

I’d like your opinion on what I feel was a breach of etiquette on the part of my nephew’s new motherin-law.

Recently, my nephew got married in Chicago. My family of seven flew from Connecticut to the wedding for two days. The bride’s mother never made an attempt to meet us at the rehearsal dinner or at the wedding.

We even saw her the day we were flying home. She looked at us but made no attempt to come over and speak to our family.

The trip cost us a lot of money, along with the generous monetary gifts we all gave. The bride and groom thanked us, but we felt it was extremely rude of the bride’s mother to ignore us. An introduction and a “thank you so much for coming all this way” would have gone a long way in making us feel welcome and appreciated.

Tell me what you think. — Feeling Snubbed

This woman may not be the hostess with the mostess, but I would let this one go. Weddings are extremely hectic, and those involved in the planning have a lot on their plates. The mother of the bride was probably consumed with making sure the events went off without a hitch. If she didn’t introduce herself, it was not out of malice. And if you really cared so much about meeting her, you might have crossed the banquet hall and introduced yourself.

I just read the letter from the 80-year-old parent who advised children to call their elderly parents. My advice to elderly parents? Instead of waiting for your kids to call, call them! When I was a young adult, the only times my mother ever called me were when a relative had died or someone was seriously ill in the hospital. My husband’s mother never called him, either. An elderly aunt did call once in a while, and it was always such a treat to talk with her.

My husband and I make it a point to call our adult children every now and then just to chat. If they are busy (my mother’s excuse for never calling me was that I might have been busy, sleeping, not home, etc.), we keep it brief and just tell them we were thinking of them and will talk some other time. Keeping the lines of communication two-sided has been nothing but great for our relationship with our children.

— Anonymous, Too

ACROSS

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Comaneci 16 Eyebrow shape 17 *Sub in the

dugout 19 Bumped into 20 Look lifeless, as

flowers 21 Many a multiplechoice test answer 23 Org. created the same year as the first Earth Day 25 *TV addict with a

remote 29 One of six in this

clue 31 Parody 32 Alma mater of many Oxford students 33 Foe 35 Decorative oldstyle collar 37 *Largest of the

Quad Cities 43 Lime cover 44 India’s first prime

minister 46 Candy sold in

pairs 50 Productive city

for van Gogh 53 Speaker’s

podium 54 *Car section under the passenger compartment 57 Indent key 58 Annoyed 59 Annoy playfully 61 Winter roof-rack

item 62 Wedding reception headache ... and what the starts of the answers to starred clues constitute? 68 Color distinction 69 “Snowy” bird 70 West, to Juan 71 IRS deadline mo. 72 High, as

ambitions 73 Sugary

DOWN

1 Bush of Florida 2 Suffix with modor gran3 Alaska’s is the largest of the 50 states 4 Price hike: Abbr. 5 For a special

purpose 6 Buy eagerly, as

goods on sale 7 Tarnish 8 Nav. leader 9 Falsehood 10 Slow tempo 11 Charged

aggressively 12 Fast tempo 13 Responds to, as

a tip 18 Amorously

pursues 22 Salt Lake City

collegian 23 She sheep 24 Atlantic Ocean,

to Brits 26 Top-selling Toyota 27 Time of day 28 Sputtering sound 30 Driver’s lic. issuer 34 Slangy “Sure” 36 Sight that elicits

“Shark!” 38 Close by 39 Robber, to a cop 40 20-volume ref. 41 “Is there more?” 42 Opera offering 45 Port on a PC 46 Country singer

Yearwood 47 Generate via exercise, as a sweat 48 More distasteful 49 Classic Jaguar xwordeditor@aol.com 51 Thing 52 Viewed 55 Ford failure 56 Nigerian city that’s Africa’s most populous 60 Gush 63 Big-headed quality 64 “Bowwow!” cousin 65 Vietnamese New

Year 66 Snacked on 67 After-tax amount

This woman may not be the hostess with the mostess, but I would let this one go. Weddings are extremely hectic, and those involved in the planning have a lot on their plates. The mother of the bride was probably consumed with making sure the events went off without a hitch.