and most consider speculating about their probable reactions to be an interesting daydream rather than preparation for the real thing. I was like most people in this respect. Would I be brave, ingenious, frightened, cowardly? What I would be, it turned out, was shocked into surprised numbness that made me act, ludicrous as it seems in retrospect, with what could only be described as very good manners.
My Emily Post moment came one Saturday evening during a party. It was around 11:00 at night and the party had been going on for about four hours. There were about 40 people present, a lot of noise, a lot of dancing, and a lot of food and drink being sucked up as the numbers increased steadily throughout the evening. Worried about the rapidly disappearing provisions, the host, my friend Janet, began to think that things were likely to continue very late. But not if there was nothing to eat or drink. And when a crowd of basketball players and their dates showed up it began to
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