Spanish café charges more for coffee if customers are rude

"Restaurant Blau Grifeu in Llanca charges rude customers €5 for their morning pick-me-up while those who behave more graciously pay just €3."

"Saying 'please' and wishing the barista a good morning will get you a coffee for as little as €1.30.

Marisel Valencia Madrid, the owner of Restaurant Blau Grifeu, said the scheme is working and that customers are beginning to be more polite to her staff.

“People seem to be in a rush these days and forgetting to say 'please' when they ask for something,” she told the Times. 

link

Sketchy question

I mentioned this "So, what do you do for a living" question bugged me when meeting people for its shortcut to all that is useful to know of a person as it misdirects. I never did identify with my job. Knowing where I worked didn't inform anything, I'd have to explain how poorly I fit in. However, what I did within those positions tells everything. Yet it is standard question that is asked immediately by way of icebreaker. Pity. It means the individual is not only curious but uncomfortable. And now I think the question is funny. Funny because the person is even more socially uncomfortable than I am. The person I mentioned this to at the time is fifteen years my senior and now that was a very long time ago said way back then, "Yeah, do you have a puffy wallet? Do you live in a big house? What about your car?" 

That was hilarious to me and it's impossible to forget that agreeable reaction. 

People still ask. At this point I tell them I whore myself out any number of ways then ask what they might have in mind.

"Carolyn Hax: My mom thinks I'm rude for not asking people more questions"

Dear Carolyn:

My mom finds it rude and uncaring that I don't make personal inquiries of the details of people's lives when I chat with them.

For instance, after telling her I saw an old friend, she'll ask questions about their life, job, family members, etc., and finds it self-absorbed of me that I don't ask after these things myself. I find that type of conversation nosy, and let people volunteer such information if they want to. I will ask, "How are you?" like anyone else, but I don't say, "How's your parent/child/spouse/pet/job/health issues?" I generally talk to people about "stuff," and personal anecdotes may or may not be a part of any conversation.

Who is right here? Should I be more solicitous of people, or just stick to my ways?

A Missive From Sir Archy

TTBurnett relayed a missive from Sir Archy regarding propriety in the context of writing dirty:

'Tis always better to retrench those Details of Frolicks in which the Author has permitted his Turn for Humour greatly to outrun his Sense of Decency & Propriety. Extream License, giving Offense to the thinking Part of the Publick, is the Clap-Trap of mere Scribblers; and unworthy of those whose Aspirations are higher than the cheapest Confines of Grubb-Street. Additionally, Warmth of Temper may lead some Authors to engraft the Characters of living Individuals into their Performances for the sake of insinuating Satyrs & Calumnies. For the most part, such literary Flights are tædious Displays of an Author’s Adamancy, when his Flattery of the Publick were more serviceable and call’d for. Occasionally, such Performances may even entail a Palinode, which no meritorious Author ever wishes to compose.
Howsoever our present Author may have err’d in Point of Judgement or Discretion, he ought to defy the whole World to prove he was ever guilty of one Act of Malice, ingratitude, or Dishonour.

It sounds to me like Sir Archy knows his Galateo.

Un po' di Galateo

Galateo: The Rules of Polite Behavior (Il Galateo, overo de 'costume) by Giovanni Della Casa (1503–56) was published in Venice in 1558. A lively guide to what one should do and avoid in ordinary social life, this influential courtesy book of the Renaissance explores subjects such as dress, table manners, and conversation. It became so popular that the title, which refers to the name of one of the author’s distinguished friends, entered into the Italian language. To “not know the Galateo” means to be impolite, crude, and awkward in polite society. link

I often "forget my Galateo." Here is Galateo on puns and word play:

Jingling Puns 

     You will meet also with some people, who, for every word that is spoken, have some other word, without any meaning, ready at hand, by way of jingle; others, who will change the syllables of a word in a trifling, foolish manner; others will speak or answer in a different manner from what we expected; and that without any wit or beauty of thought, as, 

'Where is my Lord?' -- [In his clothes, unless he is bathing or in bed]. 

'How does this wine taste?' -- [A little moist, I think]. 

'How is this dish to be eaten?' -- [With your mouth and the like].

   All which kinds of wit (as you will easily apprehend) are low and vulgar. But to discourse what kinds of wit are most elegant and genteel, is no part of my present design; for this has been done already and very copiously, by men far my superiors in learning and ingenuity. Besides, as all true wit affords immediately sufficient and certain testimony of its own grace and elegance, you can very rarely err in this respect, unless you are blinded by an immoderate degree of self-partiality: For whenever a jest is really facetious and elegant, there immediately arises an appearance of mirth and laughter, joined with no common degree of admiration.
    If, therefore, your witticisms are not instantly approved by the laugh of the company,* for Heaven's sake, do not attempt to be witty for the future, for you may take it for granted, the defect is in yourself, and not in your audience. For the hearers, being immediately stricken with a ready, genteel, and delicate repartee or bon mot, cannot possibly forbear laughing, though ever so desirous, but must necessarily laugh, though against their will. 

___________________________
*LOL

Squirrels, Rabbits, Blue Jays, and Mockingbirds

My favorite scene from an old classic:

 

The clip cuts off too soon and should have included how Calpurnia calls Scout into the kitchen and proceeds to give her a lecture on hospitality: Walter was a guest and therefore could do whatever he wanted to do. The absentee mothering that Calpurnia did was underplayed in the movie, IMO. Maybe it was too controversial/suggestive for movies in 1962?