Q. We have been trying to invite a very particular couple to supper for over a year and have finally broken down their resistance. Would it be better to have them alone, we asked ourselves, or should we play it safe and invite another couple? We decided on the latter, but late in the day, our foils have cancelled. Compatible people are thin on the ground around here, especially at such short notice, but would it be better to dilute the company with second-raters rather than to subject this distinguished duo to an intense à quatre with a couple they hardly know? We have no servants.
Name and address withheld
A. You should invite a single person rather than another couple. This formula will increase your chance of having a successful dinner party since hackles tend to rise when a couple is faced with two new couples. They know from experience that everyone will subconsciously fall into double-act mode, singing from the same song sheet, etc. Yet when a couple has to address a singleton, there is a special chemistry that often works surprisingly well and more big talk is likely to take place. While you and your wife are scurrying about, the couple will be bonding with the singleton whereas with another couple they would be more likely to be competing.
Q. I want to be good friends with someone at school and do not want her to be annoyed with me, but this girl, who is in the next dorm to me, constantly asks if she can copy my physics and chemistry prep. I find this irritating considering that while I have been working on my prep, this girl has been making better friends with other people who I could have been making better friends with. How can I say no without her thinking I am boring?
E.B, Wiltshire
A. Simply do your preps in invisible ink and do not use the revealer facility until a few moments before the lessons start. There is no need to lie. Just leave the exercise books on your desk for her to seize and assume, on finding blank pages, that you have not tackled the work yet. Invisible ink pens are available through Amazon.com but you can also use lemon juice or milk with a fountain pen and reveal the writing when it suits you by blasting the pages with a hairdryer. In the long term your friend will be grateful to you.
Q. May I suggest you advise J.B. of London N1 that next time he is travelling long-haul he should fly Cathay Pacific, whose economy-class seats have a rigid back-shell which does not recline into the space of the passenger behind. The recline is achieved by the seat ingeniously sliding forward instead. Cathay Pacific also has four flights daily from London to Hong Kong, and up to two daily onward flights to New Zealand — all at very competitive fares! I apologise for the commercial, but we’ve gone to great trouble to prevent just the problem JB complains of, and I can’t resist the opportunity to point this out. The problem you could solve for me is the collapse of air-travel demand! Any bright ideas?
T.T., Cathay Pacific
A. Thank you. Economy-class readers will be delighted to hear of this development. Regarding air-travel demand — do not worry. Like your own seats, it will be self-righting in the fullness of time.
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