Buenos Días!!!!!

Lauren's essay made me think of an issue I've been having lately. I have been attempting to go to my 9am optional chemistry lecture for the past month. Maybe one day if I manage it, it will become easier to wake up. For now, I sport dozens of alarms in my cellphone, each with two minutes of difference around 830am. I shut them all off. This behavior is epitomized by this comedian.

Schmutz

In Steven Katz's essay, we see that appearances mark the "first impression" in his interactions. It takes his friends to tell him that he is doing something wrong, as friends should. Some of us have heard our friends say how we have "something in our teeth". Personally, I am grateful for such honesty, but I know of people who would prefer to not be told anything. I wonder why. Are they embarrassed by the truth and prefer blissful ignorance (while posing a humorous distraction)?

Why bother?

In Alex Jolliet's essay, I find the analysis of the reason behind manners interesting. He basically says that he is always a gentleman, and that the purpose of that is that he generally gets better treatment from other people when he is polite. Although this is no major discovery, I found THIS article on finishing schools in Switzerland, which serve a different purpose: "But today’s students would rather deploy their good manners to land a business contract than an eligible husband, according to the school principal Viviane Néri, immaculate in a skirt suit and Alice band."

There are many benefits from being polite, and there must be an anthropological reason as to why manners emerged in the first place. Did they ensure smooth societal interactions only?