If absolutely stuck next to them, you could open your umbrella just enough to make a small tent over your head, in which case it will drip only onto your own shoulders. But you would be excused for grumbling that it rains on the just and the unjust.

On occasion, it will start raining when I am in a crowd — at the ballpark, for example, or waiting for the light to change on a crowded sidewalk. 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. Several have commented that it is rude or selfish of me to add to their rain burden.

A well-prepared reader gets chastised for opening her umbrella in a crowd; a gardener thinks it’s rude when passersby interrupt her with questions.

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.

Are you hoping that Miss Manners will say it is fine that your umbrella is channeling additional water onto the person in the seat next to you because you are only adding to the soaking that umbrella-less people deserve?

This time of year, it often rains in the afternoon, and so I carry an umbrella with me. However, many people do not. On occasion, it will start raining when I am in a crowd -- at the ballpark, for example,