Thank you Dear Abby

DEAR ABBY: What is a polite way to let someone know that reading a book in your company, when you have been invited to visit, is offensive? -- NOT A BOOKWORM

DEAR NOT: Picking up a book and reading in the face of a guest is a not very subtle hint that you have overstayed your welcome. And the appropriate response should be, "Well, I'll get going now," followed by a hasty exit.

Oh, how I wish I could clip this and jump into a time machine back to my early teen years and hand it to ONE PARTICULAR INDIVIDUAL who needed to see it. If anyone's confused as to who's who, I was the bookworm. She wasn't.

But she never got the hint. Ever.