DEAR ABBY: My son's wedding went an infuriating step beyond the standard non-reply to an RSVP. When many self-addressed, stamped responses to the reception were not received by a reasonable length of time, I called some non-respondents from our immediate family. Since my son and his fiancee were committed to pay a considerable amount of money for each dinner at the country club -- in advance -- it was important that the number of guests be accurate.
I telephoned each invited guest and almost all assured me that they would be attending, several with children -- one family totaling five.
However, on the happy day, there were an inexcusable number of "no-shows" who hadn't even bothered to call at the last minute with an excuse. Consequently, the bridal couple had to pay for a lot of thoughtless relatives who had accepted when they should have been honest and said, "If we don't have anything better to do, we'll be there." -- FED UP WITH RELATIVES
DEAR FED UP: Believe it or not, some people do not know that "R.S.V.P." means "Please respond" in French.