John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Mr. Manners

Mr. Manners (My first advice column).

I think we need a Mr. Manners.

Miss Manners, in my opinion, talks too much and interrupts people in her mind before they can interject something. She doesn’t actually interrupt them, of course. But you can tell she wants to.

Which to me is disrespectful. Especially when you are already being lectured by someone about manners.

In fact, I think lecturing people about manners is rude. But that’s a different subject altogether.

Which leads to today’s question.

“Is it possible to be too polite sometimes?”

Yes! It is. A good example of this is Jimi Hendrix and the song “Purple Haze.” Jimi, of course, was a very well-behaved young man who liked to play the guitar and even wrote some songs. In one song, Purple Haze, he opts for the more informal “Excuse me, while I kiss the sky” over the more formal “Pardon me, while I kiss the sky.”

Had Jimi gone with the latter approach (which was preferred at the time in Great Britain), it would have been a musical disaster.

So never use more formal etiquette when it would cause a musical disaster.

Jimi Hendrix was respectful without seeming disingenuously polite –and was still musically appropriate.

I think that’s the key.

That’s the end of today’s Mr. Manner’s column. Which may not make much sense but compared to Miss Manners, rocks.

And “rocks” is preferable to the more for formal “is preferable.”