Frankly, the thought of reviewing annus horribilis MMXX for good and bad manners in the news just nearly sent Etiquetteer back to bed with the vapors. It felt much more Perfectly Proper to browse through Volume 19 for a few memorable moments.
Etiquetteer’s Last Hurrah before the pandemic quarantine was to emcee the History Project’s Leap Day Pink Tea on February 29, which led to a column on the history of Leap Day, and a Very Important Surprise Wedding. Orange wasn’t typical for 20th-century brides, but Etiquetteer’s Dear Grandmother certainly wore it with distinction and Perfect Propriety.
In light of the pandemic, it’s rather funny that a February column turned to how to blow your nose in public. Masks have changed that! In a similar vein, anyone still advocating for the “L.A. Hug” is surely being told to Keep Their Distance. Etiquetteer predicted that the handshake would not come back. Do you think so? Etiquetteer made some other predictions about the Perfect Propriety of the future. Will we ever be able to have a wedding without Zoom again?
And with the quarantine keeping us at home in comfortable clothes, Etiquetteer had a lot of fun researching the history of tea gowns and caftans. Etiquetteer was also asked about the future of gloves, which sadly still doesn’t look very promising. In a similar vein, Etiquetteer got to research the Perfectly Proper time to begin wearing seersucker; the answer is not universal the world over!
The year saw palpable and permanent changes to the landscape of social protest, and Etiquetteer wrote about the tension between Protest vs. Manners. Truly, protest is what happens when manners aren’t enough. Etiquetteer also paid a tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and offered some suggestions to the Biden Administration for White House Entertaining to Heal a Nation.
Finally, Etiquetteer inaugurated the Dress Dinner Challenge during the spring quarantine, and may bring it back this winter, when we all need something to look forward to. Look for those columns in the index.
Etiquetteer would like to wish you a Safe, Healthy, Prosperous, and Perfectly Proper New Year! May 2021 return us all to a state of Perfect Propriety.