Q. My son is having his 30th birthday next weekend and has invited 50 friends to a garden party. We thought it would have been okay to host a party by now, but government guidelines say it is illegal to have more than 30 people. How does he reduce the numbers? One way to do it might be to have a live Zoom chat and pick the names out of a hat. That would also give my son the opportunity not to put a name in if a friend has a partner he doesn’t get on with. Would this work?
— Name and address withheld
A. Even if one undesirable guest were dropped by this method, it would also likely result in the removal of many understudies
(i.e. the partners of best friends but not the best friends themselves), which would spoil the event. Taking caterers, guest insecurities and sleeping arrangements into consideration, it would be better to roll the whole party over to the same date next year.
Q.
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