Q. I am arranging the seating plan for my daughter’s wedding and have a problem with one of her guests who is notorious for swapping her place to insert herself between ‘better’ people and thus disrupting the whole scheme. There will be 20 tables of eight at the dinner and I will be too busy to keep an eye on her. What do you suggest, Mary?
— Name and address withheld
A. You can outwit this disruptor by substituting a pseudonym, say Harriet Belafonte, for her own name on the grand plan at the door. Her name will not appear and so she won’t know which place name to swap. By the time she has finished touring the tables and approaches you, frantic and fearful of the humiliation of having been left out altogether, you can study the plan with furrowed brow and say, ‘Silly me — you are supposed to be between X and Y on table 12.
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