DEAR MISS MANNERS: On a personal (not business) phone call, which person should begin to end the call: the one who initiated the call, or the call receiver? Or does it not matter?
GENTLE READER: It is not who initiates the termination of a call, but rather how it is done, that is the more important point. The available methods are infinite, ranging from the rude slamming down of the receiver -- meant to terminate not just the call, but possibly the friendship as well -- to the tactful “Well, I won’t keep you,” to the traditional “Sorry, I have to go; I hear my mother calling.”
In these days of time-limited videoconferencing, Miss Manners prefers almost any one of these to the communication snapping off at the whim of a distant electron.