Mary Killen
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Q. How can I convince my daughter and son to write thank you letters without a blazing stand up row?
— Name and address withheld
A. The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong. Explain that in 2012 you can stand out from your peers by doing the one thing they are not doing. Handwritten thank-you letters from teens and twentysomethings have such rarity value today that their senders automatically attract favourable reviews from grown-ups and consequently whatever few jobs are going. Old Salopian Jonathan Marland, born 1956, who was the only one of his generation not to take drugs, found the field open for him. While his peers were lying on their backs with life and all its potential passing them by, Marland was able to make fantastic progress resulting in a peerage, a manor house and a beautiful wife.
Q. May I pass on a tip to readers? My bad back prevents me from dusting behind a certain heavy mahoghany sideboard. The other night I dropped some dog biscuits behind it and sent my Irish wolfhound in. He came out wreathed in cobwebs and dust.
— Name and address withheld
A. Thank you for this tip, which recalls the Victorian practice of sending geese down chimneys which householders could not afford to have professionally swept.
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