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In its natural state, the child tells the literal truth because it is too naive to think of anything else. Blurting out the complete truth is considered adorable in the young, right smack up to the moment that the child says, 'Mommy, is this the fat lady you can't stand?

Judith Martin

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Judith Martin
Age: 86
Born: 1938
Born: September 13
Economist
Journalist
Washington
District of Columbia
Thinking
Else
Complete
Smack
Truth
Says
Literal
Young
Stand
Naive
States
Child
Fats
Anything
State
Lady
Right
Moment
Tells
Mommy
Children
Natural
Considered
Think
Moments
Honesty
Adorable

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it's no longer socially acceptable to make bigoted statements and racist remarks. Some people are having an awful time with that: 'I didn't know anybody would be offended!' Well, where have you been? I remember when people got away with it and they don't anymore. That's fabulous.
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You should resolve not to seek public approval of your private business, when you are not also prepared to accept public disapproval.
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When you consider how epidemic boredom is in our time, you have to concede that entertaining is a healing art.
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Washington knows that it is not safe to kick people who are down until you find out what their next stop will be.
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A wedding invitation is sent by people who have been saying, Do we have to ask them? to people whose first response is, How much do you think we have to spend on them?
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You think death is any better an excuse for desertion than any other?
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Being listened to should be sufficiently gratifying in itself, whether or not the advice is followed.
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Generosity and gratitude are inseparably linked.
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A young lady is a female child who has just done something dreadful.
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The pejorative term political correctness was adapted to express disapproval of the enlargement of etiquette to cover all people, in spite of this being a principle to which all Americans claim to subscribe.
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Parents should conduct their arguments in quiet, respectful tones, but in a foreign language. You'd be surprised what an inducement that is to the education of children.
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Chaperons, even in their days of glory, were almost never able to enforce morality what they did was to force immorality to be discreet. This is no small contribution.
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Most people who work at home find they do not have the benefit of receptionists who serve as personal guards
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We have the reverse of the Puritan work ethic in America now. No one ever becomes a star by plugging along year after year. What is needed is flair, talent, 'an eye,' contacts, charisma, and, most of all, naturalness.
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Indeed, Miss Manners has come to believe that the basic political division in this country is not between liberals and conservatives but between those who believe that they should have a say in the love lives of strangers and those who do not.
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For email, the old postcard rule applies. Nobody else is supposed to read your postcards, but you'd be a fool if you wrote anything private on one.
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