DEAR MISS MANNERS: At a dinner party, my companion quietly excused herself after the meal to smoke a cigarette. She went outside, over our nonsmoking hostess’s protestations that inside was fine.

As I escorted my friend outside, I heard a fellow guest, the wife of a mutual acquaintance, shriek, “What? She SMOKES?” in a tone that would have been appropriate only if my companion had excused herself to murder people or purchase heroin. I ignored it, but I felt like I should have said something.

Is this kind of behavior going to become conventionally accepted as smoking is increasingly stigmatized?

Stories by Judith Martin

Miss Manners: Fundraising speaker’s long-winded story has donor looking for a way to complain

Miss Manners: When ‘no soliciting’ sign doesn’t work, am I justified in y

See Full Page