Solution to those posts

DEAR MISS MANNERS »

I am very good friends with a couple that I absolutely adore. They both work in public safety and make a lot of money doing what they do — so much so, that they travel frequently (four to five times per year). Their trips aren’t short jaunts to local haunts, but rather all-inclusive, weekslong trips to faraway foreign lands, and each trip is documented online from the moment they make the reservations until the minute they return (“So exhausted! So glad to be home! So blessed!”).

With the advent of social media, it’s become second nature for people to share everything they do online, but when is enough enough? How do I let them know that I’m happy for their financial success and good fortune, but tired of their constant bragging? GENTLE READER » Cease following them on social media.

DEAR MISS MANNERS »

I recently learned that a classmate I’d been to school with from kindergarten through senior year passed away, far too young.

We were not intimate friends, and I hadn’t seen her in years, but I remember her vividly and happily, and was sad to hear of her passing. I sent a sympathy card to her mother, essentially saying the above, and mentioning one specific happy memory I had.

Her mother responded with a kind note, surprised to hear from me, but thanking me for expressing my sympathies.

Should I respond to her? Is this a conversation that might be considered “closed”?

That the exchange was conducted by postal mail gives me a bit of time to figure out the correct response. Had I been closer to my classmate, it would be an easier question, but she was really just a very nice person I spent all of my childhood and adolescence with, and whose death saddened me. GENTLE READER » Your schoolmate’s mother’s thanking you was gracious, whether or not she also meant to end the conversation, but it does not necessitate any further communication.