How rude is that? It's up to you.

Prudie's got a great response to a hurt reader called "Flabbergasted" whose friend invited everyone in her family to her wedding except her dad, who has terminal cancer.  The friend's reasoning: he won't be around anyway.  Ouch!  Prudie gave her usual zesty, spot-on advice.

 Read the story here: Dear Prudence

My business partner Newt and I are known as experts in our field, and as such are frequently invited to conduct webinars by publishers around the country.  Recently, we were contacted by a marketer -- I'll call her "Jean" -- who was interested in promoting one of our talks to her audiences.  Naturally, we were honored and agreed to do the presentation.

While we were running through our webinar on a conference line and testing the technology, Jean began to appear more and more nervous and chatted obsessively about small details of the presentation.  "Do you two have pictures we can put up for people to see while you talk?" she asked us.  Eager to help her and calm her down, Newt volunteered that he'd recently had professional head-shots taken and that he'd upload one to the system, joking that he "hoped his good looks wouldn't distract the audience too much."

Jean, her colleague Karen, and I waited while Newt uploaded the pic.   Apparently, Jean was the first to see Newt's picture, because she blurted out in a horrified tone, "WHAT? Are you kidding?  I mean, are you serious?  Can I at least try to crop it or something?"  Karen laughed nervously.  Since I still couldn't see the picture on my own computer, I assumed that our lovable prankster Newt had uploaded some kind of joke picture -- Bozo the Clown, or the Rock, or some such.

Sadly, no.  The picture that finally showed up was my poor, dear friend and partner's professional head-shot.   Apparently, Newt failed to meet Jean's lofty expectations for business consultant hotness.

Ever good-natured, Newt laughed it off.  Jean tried to recover by babbling, "oh, I didn't mean anything by my comment, it's just, it's just that you looked so 'mean.'" 

We then had a welcome second or two of silence without Jean's verbal diarrhea.  The respite ended way too soon when Jean asked me, "Sally, will you be putting your picture up, too?"

I think not!

How rude is that?

One too many fans?  Or are hydrangeas really THAT loathesome?

Hard to know what Madonna was thinking when she completely dissed a starstruck fan's gift of an impressive flower.  Maybe she didn't know she her mic was on when she revealed how much she hated it.  Of course, even without the audio, the poor guy would have figured out his gift was less than fully appreciated when he saw her immediately toss it under the table.  Ouchy!

How rude is that?

Read it -- see the video on -- Yahoo!

My two siblings and I were lucky to have doting parents who nurtured us academically, helping us all attain great educations at the universities of our choice.  These experiences helped us find our true passions in life -- which for the three of us meant highly creative (but not exactly highly remunerative) careers that we all enjoy.

We've all tried to pass this love of learning and creating on to our own children. Now a freelance writer, my older sister has made a heroic effort at raising her daughters after the tragic loss of her husband. Despite the fact that money is tight, they're doing so well academically she's encouraging them to reach for their college aspirations. Scholarships were a possibility, and, after all, the top universities had a stated mission to bring top students from all backgrounds together -- to educate the next generation of leaders in all fields, from commerce to the arts.  So, it was no surprise when my niece Whitney decided to apply a number of prestigious colleges -- including her mother's alma mater, Harvard University.

What was a surprise, though, was the behavior of the alum assigned to interview my niece as part of the admissions process. Things started out in the usual way, with friendly introductions.  But soon into the conversation, the interviewer took a scan of my niece's application documents -- and appeared confused.  

"I see your mother went to Harvard." she asked Whitney with a suspicious tone.  "Yes ... she did ..." Whitney trepidatiously replied.  "Well then," the interviewer responded caustically, "why would you need a scholarship?" 

Poor Whitney was speechless -- as well she should have been. It's not often a college applicant is expected to defend her family's net worth.  And

How Rude is That?