Request to visit with dogs deserved more tactful response

would love to have just the two of you” is likely what you thought you said. But anyone reading your letter, including Miss Manners, clearly inferred that your hardwood floors were more important to you than their dogs.

This is clearly not what they wanted to hear. Since your friends seemed to have remained in good standing by asking you to come to their house instead, however, Miss Manners advises you to take them up on their offer graciously.

Dear Miss Manners: I do coursework on the weekends at the public library in my town. They have several sets of large and small tables.

Because I need to spread out lots of papers, books, notepads and my laptop, I sit at a large four-person table, which also has a built-in electrical plug for my laptop. These tables have hard wooden chairs with high backs. The smaller two-person tables have no plugs, but wider seats with padded cushions and low backs.

I have disc degeneration and a herniated disc, so sitting still for long periods of time and not being able to stretch take a toll on my back for the four to six hours I am at the library. I have started to swap out the chairs, always putting them back. For what it is worth, tables are not at a premium and there are plenty to go around.

Still, I feel guilty not only for being a single person at a large table for four, but for also swapping the seats. Gentle Reader: As with public transportation and any other unreserved, unpaid seating, the solution is to offer to move if someone asks.

Dear Miss Manners: Is it appropriate to have a gofundme page to pay for your honeymoon? Gentle Reader: NO. Dear Miss Manners: After the death of one of their grandparents, my relatives, for the second time, have opted to use the postage that would have been spent on thankyou notes to make a donation to a group of cloistered nuns. One of the relatives in question is a member of the convent. Is this something new, for people to donate to a cause or charity to which the giver would not choose to give?

Gentle Reader: It may be, which does not mean Miss Manners condones the behavior. Were the subjectmatter not so serious, she would express amusement.