Manners & Customs

Fresh Air broadcasts a lecture by Alan Dundes about how folklore has influenced our behaviors, social customs and popular culture.

Writer William Hinton wrote the acclaimed book Fanshen, about life in a Chinese village. He talks about life in China after the Cultural Revolution.

Judith Martin, better known as Miss Manners, the name under which she writes her Washington Post advice column. She also reviews theater under her own name for the Post. She's recently written "Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior." Martin joins the show to defend the importance of etiquette, discuss class relations and manners, and answer Fresh Air staff's questions on topics such as splitting the check, catching an unzipped "fly," sexism and other "-isms' in the workplace, and the perils of modern dating and marriage.

Gay icon and writer Quentin Crisp. Crisp is known for his autobiography "The Naked Civil Servant." The memoir recounts the social price Crisp paid for being an out and effeminate gay man. Crisp counters his critics with politeness, which is the subject of his new book "Manners from Heaven."

TV critic David Bianculli reviews a new show that rebroadcasts the human interest stories journalist Charles Kuralt produced for the CBS Evening News.

Book critic John Leonard says many of the conclusions about indigenous culture in Bruce Chatwin's The Songlines are wishful thinking. But that doesn't mean the book isn't a great read.

Critic Stuart Klawans says Patricia Eakins' new short story collection is as preoccupied with strange animals as it is different literary traditions. The tales are instructive, while not always uplifting.

Director Stephen Frears directed the adaptation of the play, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, about a contest of sexual conquest and infidelity. Film critic Stephen Schiff praises how it handles eroticism. Despite some casting missteps, he believes it's "a brilliant tarentella" of a movie.

Oklahoma-born Singer writes the Talk of the Town feature for the magazine, as well as profiles of ordinary people in New York. A new book, Mr. Personality, collects the best of his New Yorker pieces.

Book critic John Leonard says that V.S. Naipal's book about his travels in the American South reflects a tourist's mindset. The author's sentimental perspective prevents him from seeing the complicated race and class issues that shape the region.

Critic-at-large Laurie Stone says that recent advertisements, TV shows, and theater betray a cultural shift toward a new traditionalism that debases feminism and expects women to return to conventionally feminine roles.

Book critic John Leonard reviews Tolstaya's new book, On the Golden Porch. The author is descended from Leo and Alexander Tolstoy, and has garnered comparisons to Chekov. But Leonard says Tolstaya most reminds him of John Cheever for the way she captures sadness on the page.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan is no fan of minimalist literature, which she derides for its familiar, navel-gazing themes. By contrast, she admires T. Coraghesson's expansive, political, and historical fiction. Unfortunately, his approach is better suited to the novel, rather than the short stories in his latest collection, If the River Was Whiskey.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the book "It Happened in the Catskills," an oral history of the resorts that made up what was known as the Borsht Belt.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "BAD, or the Dumbing of America," by Paul Fussell. In his book, Fussell decries the decline of quality and taste in everything from movies to education. (It's published by Summit Books).

Halberstam has a new book -- a social, political, economic, and cultural history of what he considers the most pivotal decade of the century -- called "The Fifties." His other books include, "The Best and the Brightest" and "The Powers That Be."

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "The New Age," starring Judy Davis and Peter Weller. The film is directed by Michael Tolkin, author of "The Player."

The nation's most trusted source on proper etiquette, Judith Martin... better known as Miss Manners. Her new book is "Miss Manners Rescues Civilization: From Sexual Harassment, Frivolous Lawsuits, Dissing and Other Lapses in Civility" (Crown Publishers). Coinciding with the release of her new book, Martin has declared June 24 the start of "National Civility Week," in an effort to liberate society from problems caused by the rejection of etiquette.

Newspaper columnist and the etiquette expert, Judith Martin, otherwise known as Miss Manners. Her new book is "Miss Manners' Basic Training: Communication" (Crown News) about the social issues of phone answering machines, e-mail, and cyberspace.

Garfield has reported on the oddities of America for "All Things Considered" and in his syndicated column. His new book "Waking Up Screaming from the American Dream" (Scribner) is a collection of stories about the bizarre measures people have taken to live the American dream.