Letitia Baldrige

Jeans of any sort should not be worn in nice restaurants. They pollute the landscape. They should also not be worn in the workplace if no other workers wear them. However, if your office is casual, go for it.

Chivalry isn't dead. It's just no longer gender-based.

Politeness decrees that you must listen to be kind; intelligence decrees that you must listen to learn.

That's how a nation's manners are going to be taught - from watching others' behavior and learning from the effects of that behavior.

President and Mrs. Kennedy would walk into the East Room with their honored guests, preceded by the military color guard, who then posted their flags behind the receiving line. This ceremony never failed to move all of us, no matter how many times the staff witnessed it.

If you care enough to look right, you care enough to act right. And vice versa.

The polished executive is ultimately the happy executive who can walk gracefully through life.

CEOs are called by their first names by young whippersnappers. That makes everybody uncomfortable. We need order and structure back in the workplace.

For every step forward in electronic communications, we've taken two steps back in humanity. People know how to use a computer and answering machines but have forgotten how to connect with one another. Our society is unraveling. We're too self-obsessed.

Backpacks are obtrusive. They're great for school kids and mountaineers, but a woman is supposed to look enticing and glamorous at night. They obscure one of a woman's most erogenous zones, the nape of her neck. I suppose they're good if you want to keep men away.

Kids today and for the last 20 years have held the fork and knife in unbelievable ways. They hold the fork with a fist and the knife like a saw and they shovel it in. It doesn't matter to them which way they hold their knife and fork. They eat every which way. I'm amazed they get food into their mouths at all.

I never made any money, but I had the best jobs in the world.