DEAR MISS MANNERS: How would you advise “managing” dinner table conversations? At a table for eight to 10, I’ve found three to four conversations going on simultaneously, with cross talk creating a wall of sound. It’s rare if a single person can speak uninterrupted, even if he has enough self-awareness to be brief.
What could have been a pleasant exchange of ideas and information becomes an annoying and frustrating experience. This is, of course, irrespective of the subject matter, and only gets much worse with the usual no-nos (religion, politics, etc.).
GENTLE READER: A successful dinner party, Miss Manners would have thought, is one at which the guests enjoy themselves, possibly without doing permanent damage to the property or neighbors. She mentions this only to make the point that any management is presumably in furtherance of achieving this end.
She does not therefore understand the need to prevent multiple conversations, only to make sure that no one is excluded, which can be accomplished by the host drawing such individuals in.
(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)
