Your problems solved
Q. I have met a man who, despite being 66, is very fanciable. He has been paying me some attention. The problem is that he spits while he is speaking. I think this is a new habit: his former wife and long-term girlfriend have high standards and would not have put up with it, but he has been single for a couple of years. I don’t want to nag him even before we have embarked on anything — but I would not want to embark on anything while being sprayed with spittle.
— K.M., London WC1
A. Invite him to lunch with a small group, including another man who spits. Seat the two spitters opposite each other. Orchestrate for the other spitter to leave first and for your fellow
guests to open up a discussion on spitting and its causes, culminating in the (correct) conclusion that a good dentist can usually put an end to the problem. In this manner you can pave the way
towards helping your potential new suitor, who may well volunteer during the discussion that he, too, occasionally spits.
Q. A friend from school who lives in the country often comes to stay when she wants to spend a night or two in London. I enjoy her company, with one proviso. She talks a lot and is very
entertaining — in fact her anecdotes are almost a performance. They are in no way impersonal, with me as a faceless audience, but the trouble is that when I want to interject to tell her
something very relevant to what she has said, she will brook no interruption. I have no wish to sabotage her theatrical momentum, but if I don’t try, it means that by the time she is ready
for me to talk, I have forgotten what I wanted to say.
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