Dear Mary: Another way to deal with a maddening blackhead

Q. Might I suggest an alternative solution to E.B. of London’s problem (3 October) about the person sporting a ‘maddening’ blackhead at a poolside party? Surely a more tactful way of drawing the man’s attention to the blackhead would have been for E.B. to pretend she thought it was an insect that had landed. On failing to shoo it away, she could have exclaimed that it might be a tick and he should remove it and then offered to assist in this operation. The nuisance could thus have been dealt with without the poor man even discovering that he had an embarrassing zit.
— J.P., Stratford upon Avon

A. Thank you. The first part of your solution is good but the second part is unusable, since a tick bite can be such a real menace. Make it absolutely clear what you removed, but refer to it as a ‘comedo’, the more glamorous scientific term for blackhead.

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