Limo greeter must be firm if clients get too friendly
more assertive.
Gentle reader: Actually, rummaging in your hair is sexual, and although Miss Manners condones neither rudeness nor violence, she would look the other way if you’d whopped him with his own luggage.
Try fending off those perhaps more innocent, but still presumptuous, hugs by holding the client’s name placard in front of you and reaching out for a pleasant handshake. Anything more intrusive should be met with the firm request that the client not try to distract you while you are doing your job.
Dear Miss Manners: I love going to the movies. I understand that attending a show with an audience is part of the fun of cinema.
I also find myself getting annoyed with other patrons in the movie theater who feel compelled to be loud or rowdy during the show.
Is there a polite way to ask someone to keep it down? I try a stern look, and on occasion I’ve moved seats. My mom tells me that I should just ignore the people around me, but I have a hard time doing that.
Gentle reader: When you speak of the pleasure of sharing a movie with an audience, Miss Manners believes that you refer to the collective laughter or gasps indicating that everyone is having the same experience. What you are experiencing, instead, is the distraction by people who are having their own, unrelated fun, whether with one another or through their devices.
As you have noticed, that is not much fun for others present. It must be one of the reasons that movie theaters are declining.
Watching at home has made it possible to assemble others who want to observe the same standard — whether rowdiness, silence or something in between.
Miss Manners suspects your mother is warning you that the situation is hopeless, as you cannot take on a crowd, and the usher who used to deal with disturbances is nowhere in sight.
Miss Manners recommends a discussion with your mother, and, if you share her residence, request a movie-streaming account that will enable you to enjoy films with like-minded people.