I was recently given a book, The Bluffer's Guide to Etiquette, written by William Hansom. It is called the “bluffer's guide” because it offers assistance in bluffing your way around a social situation when you don't know the proper etiquette. It also has some handy tips for actually knowing how to behave properly.

Dear L. A. Plume

Every year, thanks to in-home, easier-than-ever-to-use PCs and printers, we seem to get more lengthy Christmas letters. One special one, from folks in California whom we never see, had a paragraph's worth of details on the exquisite bed linens in a quaint B&B in Murmansk. Do I give a whit? Not unless I'm headed for Murmansk (unlikely), in which case I'll ask you. Do they think we care? How conceited can people get?

Fed Up Frieda