Maybe it's just that you don't know how to use social courtesy.

Oh, that's old-fashioned.

Watch how Lizzie Post and Dan Post Senate act as host and hostess.

They know that courtesy means showing respect, thinking of the other person,

real friendliness.

Hello. And welcome to awesome etiquette, where we explore modern etiquette through the lens

of consideration, respect, and honesty. On today's show, we take your etiquette questions on

rejecting kind offers, how to handle first and middle names on a wedding invitation,

a follow-up question from episode 182 on belated second receptions, how to handle in lieu of gifts for an 80th birthday party,

and a very jumbo-shrimpy problem.

Plus, your most excellent feedback, etiquette salute, and a post script segment on happiness that highlights the work of Emma Sapala.

Coming up.

Awesome etiquette comes to you from the studios of Vermont Public Radio and is proud to be produced in Burlington, Vermont by the Emily Post Institute.

I'm Lizzie Post. And I'm Dan Post Sending.

Hey!

It is a pleasure to be here with you. I know.

I've been working from home lately, so you and I, like, haven't really been in presence

together in face.

It gave me a good excuse to visit your home and to see your new home office.

It's really nice.

Thank you. I finally cleared out my project room with my unapulstered chairs that have sat there for a year because I have yet to get to that project. The last time I saw it, it was a pile of art supplies. Yes, that's just in the basement now. It's not like that got cleaned up and put away. It just got moved to a less sightly play. It's really nice. The office is a really nice space. It actually makes the first floor of my house really feel complete now, which is great. I'm digging it. I understand why you like working from home. I wanted to bring up something I heard on NPR the other weekend, and it was on guessing. And it really made me think about the golden rule and then the platinum rule. And apparently we humans are

really bad guessers. We're really good at assuming that we think we know how something's going to

...