Brooklyn1 wrote:
> On Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:38:56 -0800 (PST), Lenona >
> wrote:
>
>> Pretty amusing.
>>
>> Lenona.
>>
>> http://www.buffalonews.com/life/colu...icle325123.ece
>>
>> A proper postponement?
>>
>> Dear Miss Manners: A few weeks ago, my husband and I invited a couple
>> who are neighbors to a small cocktail party, just the four of us. They
>> were supposed to arrive at our house at 6 p.m.
>>
>> At 5 p.m. that same evening they called to ask us to postpone this
>> party until the following night. I replied no and I mentioned that I
>> had already prepared the food.
>>
>> The wife mentioned that the husband had an emergency and could not
>> make it. I was stunned then, and I’m still stunned today. When I
>> looked outside, his car was parked in his spot at 6:15 p. m. I don’t
>> know how to react to this. To me, she should have maybe showed up for
>> a short time to show us that this reason was legitimate and he could
>> have joined us later.
>>
>> I spoke to her later and she appears like nothing happened and does
>> not care that we lost hundreds of dollars worth of food and the time
>> it took us to prepare the party. This has never happened to me in 50
>> years. I had people cancel the day before, the morning of but never
>> one hour before. How would Miss Manners react?
>>
>> Gentle Reader: With amazement that cocktail food for four people could
>> cost hundreds of dollars. What were you serving—buckets of caviar?
>>
>> The answer is that while your neighbors were wrong to treat the
>> occasion so lightly, you are treating it rather heavily. Stopping by
>> for drinks with the neighbors does sound like a casual event that
>> could easily be postponed, in contrast to an elaborate cocktail party,
>> which is presumed to involve major preparation and a goodly number of
>> guests. Had you invited them for dinner perhaps they might have taken
>> the invitation more seriously.
>>
>> But it is open to you to make your point by inquiring sympathetically
>> about the emergency—is he all right? Is there anything you can do to
>> help?
>>
>> Just please do not admit to spying on his car. This proves nothing, as
>> he could have been taken away in an ambulance, but is the sign of a
>> creepy neighbor.
>
> What kind of imbecile prepares HUNDREDS of $$$$$ in food for cocktails
> with two neighbors... were it me all I'd have to do is put the bottles
> and glasses back in the bar hutch, rewrap a couple three cheeses, and
> close up two boxes of crackers... I'd have lost a little extra ice but
> I'd have learned that those neighbors belong on my Do Not Invite
> Douchebags list.

I, too, was wondering about that "hundreds of dollars". What
planet does this person live on?

--
Jean B.