You know what I really hate? When, like, I'm having an impoverished single father of seven spit-shine my new Gucci alligator shoes and he actually tries to interact with me. The nerve! I want my servants subservient, dammit, and so does Bob Morris over at the Times:

Call me a snob, but I like to be served quietly, even deferentially, especially when I am paying top dollar. The traditional approach, as laid out in the recently republished "George Washington's Rules of Civility" seems right to me: "Speak not til you are ask'd a Question," our first president wrote, "and Answer in a few words."

If our forefathers were into snobbery, we should uphold their tradition. Also: slavery. We should bring that one back, too.
Kindness (Ugh!) of Strangers [NYT]

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