DEAR MISS MANNERS: I live in an old mill that has been converted to apartments. I know some of my neighbors, but there are many I do not. There’s a lot of us here, and people move in and out frequently.
I like holding the door for others. However, since our apartment has a vestibule door that requires a residency key to enter, other tenants often seem uncomfortable with my holding the door.
What am I to do -- pull the door closed behind me and mouth apologies through the window? Or completely ignore the person and hope I never see them in the laundry room?
GENTLE READER: Spy movies in which the good guy gains access to the old mill by defeating a high-tech, higher-cost security system bore Miss Manners. Partly this is because she is unsporting enough to notice that a halfway attentive guard (the other half presumably playing sudoku) would have foiled the whole plan.
The lesson is that now is the time to introduce yourself to your new neighbors. This will spare you from the other reason Miss Manners avoids the above-mentioned movies, namely, her inability to tell the good guys and the bad guys apart.