ArcaMax

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I have a friend from childhood who is a wealthy, narcissistic hoarder. This means she spends all her time buying needless crap from the bargain bins of every box store you can imagine. For example, she'll buy several blenders just because they are on sale -- not because she needs one.

Her house is filled with this junk. I ...Read more

DEAR MISS MANNERS: A friend of ours constantly passes his cellphone around our dinner table to share photos. My husband is immunocompromised, and so we are careful of germ exposure. We don't want to touch this friend's phone.

What is a polite way to avoid touching his phone and to stop this activity? I think we should just say, "No thanks." ...Read more

DEAR MISS MANNERS: Help! My husband and I stayed at my parents' house and slept in their guest bedroom. Friends of theirs had gifted them with a terrible, but very expensive, mattress. It slopes severely toward the edges so that you feel like you're falling all night long, making sleep impossible.

My mom happened to ask if we liked the mattress...Read more

DEAR MISS MANNERS: Several years ago, a divorced woman exactly my age moved in next door. I liked her very much and tried to become friends with her.

Although she was chatty enough outside the house, she never invited me in, and the few times I invited her, she had other things to do. I eventually gave up and settled for the occasional brief ...Read more

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I was in line at a busy cosmetics store. The line wasn't moving very fast when the woman behind me asked me to save her place: She said an employee had forgotten to give her something, and she had to get it. I was approximately fifth in line and there were at least that many people waiting behind me.

I looked at the people ...Read more