“If you are by yourself in the kitchen and your meal is just about nourishment, text away. No problem! But if you’re having dinner with friends and family, be with them. As I told Sara, “The family meal is a social event, not a food ingestion event.” Even if your phone is in your lap, the people with you all know what you’re doing when your eyes are focused on your lap. Just because it’s a quiet activity (unlike a phone call), you’re not fooling anyone. And then everyone’s attention is on the fact that your attention is on your phone, not on them.” Everyday Etiquette, Emily Post institute.

“Nor does a gentlemen ever criticise the behavior of a wife whose conduct is scandalous. What he says to her in the privacy of their own apartment is no one’s affair but his own, but he must never treat her with disrespect before their children, or a servant or anyone.” Emily Post (1945). Etiquette, 587.

“In talking to a stranger who has just been introduced to you and about whom you are in complete ignorance, there is really nothing to do but try one topic after another just as a fisherman searched for the right fly. You ‘try for nibbles” by asking a few questions… Do not snatch at a period of silence. Let it go for a little while. Conversation is not a race that must be continued at breakneck space.” Emily Post (1945). Etiquette, 42.