Social Graces

I’ve been thinking about social graces the past couple of days.

Wednesday night I attended a barbecue where I had a long and interesting conversation with a magazine editor.

The conversation eventually wore down. His is not the kind of publication that would run my work.

We’d touched upon the topics of agents and daily writing habits and other whatnot. It was time to keep schmoozing.

But how does one walk away gracefully in situations such as these?

“I’m going to go downstairs and get a glass of water,” I said finally.

He smiled. I did make good on it, though.

A little while later I ran into a screenwriter I’ve known for a while. She and I said hello but it was getting late and I had to be up for work the next day. Since she is an old acquaintance I finally just blurted out, after ten minutes,

“I have to go now.”

Sometimes honesty is the best policy.

Thursday night the person I had dinner with asked me a question just as I took a bite of food.

I signaled to him with my hand and, after a few awkward moments of chewing, answered his query.

But again I ask, what is the Martha-Stewart-sanctioned advice for handling that scenario?

Wouldn’t it be nice if we lived in a world where, if we wanted to move on at a party, we could just walk away? Where we could chew and answer in good time?

It could be anarchy.

Or not.