Serene wrote:

> Oh, Dee Dee, please don't think anything of it. I was mostly teasing
> (that's what the smiley was about). I find the whole
> cameras-in-restaurants thing to be crass, but I really think it's fine
> if other people have a different take on the matter. The only person
> whose behavior I'm responsible for is my own. :-)

(That said, if I have a dining partner who is rude in my presence in
a restaurant -- being rude to waitstaff, making cellphone calls at
the table, taking lots of flash photos -- I do reserve my right to
quietly stop accepting invitations to dine with that person in
public. There are a couple people like that in my life. They don't
know it -- I think it's even ruder to shame people -- but I either
have them over when we eat, or I decline their invitations to eat at
restaurants.)

Serene