Dear Reader Column 10-23-04

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Dear Reader,

When my husband snores at night, all I have to do is tap him on the shoulder and tell him that he needs to roll on his side--problem solved. When I'm in an airplane and the woman seated next to me has fallen asleep and her snoring is drowning out the engine noise, tell me, what's the proper etiquette?

And here's another etiquette dilemma that I encountered on my recent vacation to Wisconsin. What do you do when the man seated next to you has a--how can I put this delicately?--a finger in the nose problem. I'm not talkin' an occasional touch-the-end-of-your-nose-sort-of-thing. This was serious business the entire two hour flight.

I didn't want to embarrass the woman who was snoring, so I tried to wake her up with my own set of noises, like clearing my throat and coughing. That didn't work. Neither did tapping her gently on the arm, so I decided that a full frontal attack was called for. I'd head for the bathroom and on my way past her, I'd make sure that I practically fell in her lap. Yep, that worked. She woke up and didn't have a clue of what she'd been up to while she was sleeping.

Now my other seat mate proved to be a much more challenging task for me. He was dressed in a business suit and it was obvious that he was traveling to an appointment, so I tried to strike up a conversation about business. But he wasn't a talker and would only answer with a yes or no. It was clear that he wanted to get back to the business at hand. (pun intended)

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
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www.DearReader.com

Comments

[Rich Rockwood]

Suzanne,

I just wanted to mention that snoring can be a sign of Sleep Apnea. In general terms Sleep Apnea causes you to stop breathing from 10-100 times an hour which in turn causes many physical problems. The only reason I know about it is becuase I was diagnosed with it after my wife complained about my snoring. Doing a search for Sleep Apnea in Google will provide you with lots of sources of information on the topic.