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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Buffet etiquette requires tongs

Kathy Mitchell

Dear Annie: I work as a breakfast attendant in a hotel that has a free breakfast buffet. I was hoping you could help people with buffet etiquette. I have seen many people, children as well as adults, reach into the cases and touch each donut or squeeze each bagel, etc., looking for the “freshest” one. They are all equally “the freshest.” Also, they will pick up several apples and then take one.

Please tell people to use the tongs if they are available or at least take the items they touch. – South Dakota Hotel Worker

Dear Hotel Worker: Consider it done. We hope your buffet has visible signs posted telling people to use the tongs. Also, please be sure a hotel staffer pays attention to the tongs and other serving pieces. They often go missing.

Dear Annie: I read the letter from “Soon-To-Be Ex-Husband,” whose breadwinner wife doesn’t appreciate him because he is a stay-at-home dad. I suspect his wife has her own side of this story.

I earn more than my husband. He has a job, yet contributes negligible amounts to our finances. I pay for nearly everything, and he has been the recipient of a great lifestyle. I paid all child-care expenses. When I approached him about a financial plan for my maternity leave, he said, “That’s your problem. You’re the one who wanted kids.” He did not take any time off when our kids were born.

When I get home from work, there are dishes in the sink and laundry to do. He is in front of the TV, and the kids are in front of their video screens. But because he takes the garbage out when I ask and prepares meals twice a week, he believes I don’t appreciate him.

Now that we are getting divorced, he taunts me that he is entitled to half of everything, including my pension. I pray every day for courage and the capacity to forgive. – Canada