Curated Texan
He’s done it again. Our man-about-globe Mr. Host With The Most Lance Avery Morgan is on board to share his worldly insight. Modern manners, after all, do require thoughtful kindness.
Dear Mr. Host With The Most.
I have many creative friends, so how can I tactfully tell my artist pal that I took down one of his paintings that we had over the fireplace for a year after it was given to us? We don’t want to hurt his feelings. Artful in River Oaks
Dear Arty,
Art is so subjective, and I am assuming you like the painting in the first place, or you wouldn’t have installed it above the fireplace where you see it daily. I, too, have many artist friends; both contemporary and old master and love collecting them to both enjoy the pieces and support the artists.
There are many reasons you may want to move it. Sometimes you just get tired of looking at the same thing, the painting wasn’t your taste in the first place, or even, you bought something else that works better in the spot.
No matter, just tell the artist and anyone who asks (and they shouldn’t) that you enjoy collecting art and that the best thing about it is that you are able to rotate paintings to enjoy them in different environments as you wish.
Dear Mr. Host With The Most,
I have recently been told I am correcting people when I see an error occur in their grammar. I’m polite, yet is it wrong to earnestly correct relatives or friends when they are wrong? Tempted in Tarrytown
Dear Temptress,
Just like driving a slippery road after a rainstorm, please proceed with caution. It may feel great to be right, yet being smug is worse than any grammatical offense might ever be. One time I had a close pal misuse the word ‘anecdote’ and ‘antidote.’ Bless her heart, it is not uncommon, but after hearing it too many times, I took it upon myself to use the word correctly in a sentence so she could hear it used correctly, while I was not making it a specific judgment. It is the same with the widespread misuse of the pronouns they, him and he, her and she, and so on. Just repeat it correctly and move on.
The best remedy is to not correct if you feel you may offend the offender and cause embarrassment. Or take a dive in, correct her and hopefully she won’t take it personally or that you think she is not as smart as she is, and she’ll know the correction for the future. Mr. Host With The Most has been corrected countless times over the years and loves the edification so as not to make the mistake on a grander scale at an Ambassador’s dinner where an embarrassment might be more egregious and possibly compromise diplomatic relations. Around here, we always like to think everyone else feels that way, too.
Dear Mr. Host With The Most,
Is has happened again. I have found myself asking a stranger to quiet down. Should I, or should I not do that when in a public place? Wondering in Dallas
Dear Wondering and Shhh-ing,
As they say in the long game of cricket, that is a real sticky wicket. We’ve been around the world and have experienced many cultures of both wonderful manners and extreme rudeness. We now live in a world where people download movies onto their 98-inch big screen and talk through movies and then carry that trait to a movie theater, which we can’t bear. You could always consult with the manager of the venue to ask the person to quiet down. Generally, unless it is a major infraction you can’t ask people to lessen their noise level. However, you might try what I do and say to the offender, “I wish I knew that, too. Oh, sorry, I thought you were talking to me as well.” It tends to work often. Many times, the loud talker either pipes down, or moves along his merry way, and you can go back to listening to Lizzo on your iPod.
