Your husband's boss makes a pass at a party. Your lunch date skimps on paying her share. What's a girl to do?
Someone drips red wine on your antique rug. She tries to mop it up but just makes it worse. When she confesses, she doesn't offer to have the rug cleaned. What do you do?
You're stuck with this one. If a guest offers to have the wine-stained rug cleaned, she just might take it to a second-rate cleaner. Just chalk it up to bad luck, remind yourself that it could have been worse and don't let the guests think your party has been ruined. Stiff upper lip and all that....
During dinner, someone drops a hot-button political issue into the conversation. You've invited a number of argumentative types with wildly different beliefs. How do you steer the conversation away from social Armageddon?
First of all, you should be knowledgeable enough not to invite all those quarrelsome types together to a meal in your house! Second, you might begin the dinner party with a toast: 'Here's to all of my sensitive guests who are not going to even consider starting a political argument tonight. The first one who does will be asked to go to the kitchen and begin loading the dishwasher!'
You're in an art gallery with friends. They brought their children, who -- bored -- are acting loud and obnoxious. Your friends won't step in. What do you do?
Bribe the kids with a game. Gather them around and say, 'I have a nice crisp $10 bill and I'm going to give it to whichever one of you is the quietest for the next hour. See that guard over there? I'm going to have him report back to me about the four of you.'
For your next party, arrange for a friend to take her to a show she'd like to see -- and keep doing it as many times as you can get away with it!
You're at a house party and walk in on your friend's husband in a clinch -- with a man. Do you tell your friend?
No, you should say nothing to your friend. But you may want to say something like 'You know, I just saw something I absolutely didn't see!' to the man you caught in the act.
Ungrateful friend? How to deal on the next page...
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