Modern Manners: An Etiquette Book For Rude People

A resource guide to etiquette for the 1990s touches upon everything, from which books to read in bed--in case you die in your sleep--to how to achieve distinction by being outrageous and bizarre

As one of the few folks who made it out of the National Lampoon alive and writing, P. J. O'Rourke is--a comment that might please him more than most humorists--an elder statesman of American humor. While this says much about the thinness of the field, you gotta give him his props.

Modern Manners is good, early O'Rourke, a book that you can read and enjoy without being to the right of Francisco Franco. Who can resist lines such as "A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and left off for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat." Or, "Don't wear a tweed jacket to work unless you expect to flush a covey of quail from behind the Xerox machine." Manners are a moving target, and some sections are in need of revision (cocaine really was a big deal, wasn't it?), but don't let that dissuade you. By and large, Modern Manners comes through admirably.