Bag plonked on seat – should you give it up for someone?
Credit: Getty
Are you sitting comfortably? How about your M&S leather duffel bag, strategically – pointedly – placed on the train seat next to you?
In the old normal, we fellow passengers would probably shrug it off. In this new awkward, and a sticky heatwave to boot, we’ve been plunged into an existential – which is to say an etiquette – crisis.
Is it acceptable to ask for the bag to be removed or would it be considered rude and possibly reckless?
I’m far from alone in feeling piqued by the lack of post-pandemic courtesy
We have received an invitation to an event where the suggested dress code is smart casual. This has thrown us into a tizzy, prompting us to ask a lot of dumb questions about smart casual.
Does smart casual require we bring academic transcripts? Perhaps pin them to our chests or randomly pull them from our pockets when the conversation lags?
If there is such a thing as smart casual, doesnât that infer that there must also be a not-so-smart casual? If there are pictures of what not-so-smart casual looks like, we might be better able to deduce what smart casual looks like. We are the people who learn more by looking at âwhat not to wear.â