DEAR MISS MANNERS: I don’t understand people who feel the need to point out obvious things. My husband and I were walking through a park one day, and he dropped his sunglasses. When he was already kneeling down to pick them up, a woman walked past us and told him, “You dropped your glasses.”
Of course he had realized this.
Another example was when I entered a store after rain had suddenly started. Someone informed me, “You got caught in the rain.” I was aware of this.
How should one respond when a person makes such a useless statement?
GENTLE READER: “Yes, I did (drop my glasses/get caught in the rain)!” -- as if they were bright children who had guessed right.
Just as silly, but even more annoying, are those who feel obliged to point out to you that you are tall or short or red-haired or blond. For them, Miss Manners suggests a wide-eyed “REALLY?”
Upping the unpleasantness even more are the people who inform you that you are too fat or too thin. The response to that should be, “How kind of you to say so.”