As I do every year, I watched the Academy Awards with a few friends. We meet at one friend’s house, enjoy a potluck dinner and gab about the dresses, the emcee(s), the Academy winners and losers. This year had its usual fill of beautiful and not so beautiful moments. We can learn many etiquette lessons by watching the Academy Awards.  Here are my notes on the good, the bad and the ugly moments of this year’s show.

Let’s start with the “Bad”

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It would be easy to assume civility is dead given the antics of a few people who should know better. Over the last week we’ve had a Congressman be disrespectful to the President, a tennis star show poor sportsmanship and a musician take away from another’s moment in the spotlight. What these three did was wrong and rude and lacked respect for others. It was enough to give anyone pause about where our country is headed. However, I think we are letting a few color the many and I argue there are so many gracious, kind and respectful people in this country, they just don’t get the coverage that the bad boys/girls do. [...]

Hello and welcome to the Clise Etiquette blog, a place to discuss savvy and not so savvy decorum. Etiquette may sound like a stuffy or old fashioned topic, but it’s really just about making yourself and others more comfortable by being respectful, kind and professional.

The blog will be a place for people to share thoughts and questions on the situations in life that confuse you, anger you, give you pause or make you proud. I’ll share etiquette and protocol tips and techniques that you can use to feel more confident, comfortable and successful in the workplace and socially.

I look forward to sharing ideas and dialogue with you. Please feel free to let me know if there are topics you’d like to discuss or hear more about.