Please believe me when I tell you that I seldom read Miss Manners. Or Heloise. Or Annie's Mailbox. Or anyone else peddling advice. However, the headline on Judith Martin's Miss Manners column Monday caught my eye: " 'Trying to have a baby' unsuitable for conversation." "Gentle Reader" had asked what she should do when a husband, wife or both announce in a social situation that they're trying to have a baby. I tend to agree with Gentle Reader that it's difficult not to picture the commenter and her hubby naked, rockin' and rollin'. However, Huckleberries Online commenters were divided about the appropriateness of the statement: "Dudes who say things like that are not the kind of dudes I want to be around," said James Bond. "Seriously, this kind of talk sounds like dialogue in some kind of weird post-Gloria Steinem, apocalyptic male neuterization novel." Mary Souza said: "Many years ago, when I worked as a nurse, I mentioned to one of my favorite doctors – a rumpled, older father-figure who had 10 kids – that I was taking my temperature each morning because we were trying to have a baby. He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and said, 'Mary, I hate to break this to you, but that's not how you get pregnant!' " MamaJD: "A girlfriend of mine (also a colleague of my husband's) is pregnant. She has had fertility issues. Sometimes we just want to have a private conversation without the men around. This is usually when I will ask, 'How's your uterus doing?' Nothing clears out a room faster!" MamaJD's right. I'm outtahere.

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