Dear Cr-Abby from Stymied in Maryland

DEAR CR-ABBY:
My husband and I attended the wedding of two dear friends. The groom's mother, "Millie," made party favors for all the guests -- little gift bags containing sugar-coated almonds and, because the bride and groom are animal lovers, a small glass animal. A few days later, a friend brought her teenage daughter to our home. The daughter admired the two glass animals, so I gave them to her.
I was shocked when, the following weekend, Millie called and asked me to return them. She said she planned to take them back because she would prefer to use the money to buy the couple something they could use. Feeling guilty for "regifting," I responded with the first thing that popped into my head, that I hoped I hadn't "misplaced" them. Millie said she hoped not, too -- they had cost $35 apiece, and she would expect us to reimburse her! Further, we should not mention it to the "happy couple" because of the embarrassment it would cause.
I asked the bride's sister where Millie might have bought the glass figurines under the guise of wanting to get some as gifts for my grad students. I was stunned when she responded that she had purchased an entire case of these inexpensive animals as wedding favors, and that I was welcome to them if I wanted to pick them up from her home.
I'm unclear what motivated Millie to ask for the animals to be returned, or why she would inflate the price and expect to be reimbursed. I understand there was an unpleasant power struggle over the wedding arrangements, but I'm not sure what she hopes to gain from this.
How should this be handled? My husband says I should tell Millie the truth, that we gave them away and we know they cost only 80 cents apiece. What do you say?
-- STYMIED IN MARYLAND

Dear Stumped on the Potomac,

Not that it matters (as the mother of the groom is being ridiculous) but Cr-Abby's guess is that she learned of your re-gifting some how and decide to pull your chain with the faux-return request.
That is the only explanation that would take her from lowly pond scum to a tad higher on the "no-class" food chain.

You have -0- obligation ethically, morally or from Ms. Manners manual to jump through hoops to recover/replace/reimburse for the $35 (maybe) trinket.
Unless there were pre-event instructions or tags on the table that explained the need to leave the "decorations" not party favors on the table, you are off the hook and should feel empowered to tell your "dear friend" to f-off.

As a retailer of 32 years, I have to add the practice of buying things with the "intent" to return are use....is to my mind stealing. Retailers often have to destroy, markdown or otherwise add expense to sell goods that are returned for no good reason other than "free rental benefit".

Cr-Abby

Dear Cr-Abby from Some Things are Sacred in MD

CELL PHONE USERS SHOULD GIVE IT A REST IN THE LADIES' ROOM
DEAR CR- ABBY:

Unbelievable as it may seem, this actually happened. I was in the ladies' room in my office building when a woman came in talking on her cell phone. She went into the stall next to mine and continued carrying on a conversation throughout her visit -- even while washing her hands!
I have mentioned this to several people. They say they have encountered the same situation in restrooms, too.
Cr- Abby, how would you suggest we handle this in the future?
-- SOME THINGS ARE SACRED IN MARYLAND

Dear Sister of the Sacred S_ _ _ house,

Cr-Abby hates it when people use their cell phones inappropriately; i.e. movie theaters, restaurants, and churches. However, I'm conflicted as to whether the rest room chatter crosses the Ms. Manners line.

I'm asking myself would I rather have the quiet awkwardness of hearing my neighbor fart, kerplunk and/or wee or listen to some idle chatter that may mask my own bio-noises.

I want to hear the actors in a movie (usually), I want to have a nice chat with my dinner companion(s), I want to hear the Reverend tell me what I did wrong and that it's okay and I'm forgiven. All of this I want to hear without Suzie yakking on the phone to Sally about last nights date.

I'm less interested in making sure there is churchlike quiet while people make those necessary but "not ready for prime time" noises often overheard in restrooms.

I suspect however, that the person on the other end of these calls is not very happy to hear the flushing and pre-flush noises while trying to have a phone conversation.

If your own personal tastes requires that you do something to curb that behavior maybe you could pre-flush to interrupt the conversation.

Cr-Abby