If absolutely stuck next to them, you could open your umbrella just enough to make a small tent over your head, in which case ...

DEAR MISS MANNERS: Lately it has seemed that the phrases “We’re pregnant” and “They’re pregnant” have been subsumed into acceptable usage.

If I open my umbrella, then the rain that hits it falls onto the people next to me, most of whom do not have umbrellas.

I respond in a cordial, or at least a civil, way to friends and neighbors who ask me questions about my garden while I am ...

GENTLE READER: While she agrees that neither pretending not to hear nor running and hiding are good solutions, Miss Manners ...