Dear Margo Howard. Thank you.

This letter showed up today in "Ask Margo". http://news.yahoo.com/s/dear_margo/20081205/en_dm/margo_howard20081205

When Gum Earns Opprobrium
DEAR MARGO: Maybe I'm getting too old (61), but when did it become socially acceptable for adult men and women to chew gum with their mouths open and constantly "crack" their gum? I can understand a person indulging himself or herself in an activity better suited to a 10-year-old in the privacy of one's home -- but not in public sitting behind someone at the movies, standing in line at the supermarket, or at the office. If I turn and ask the person to please knock off the popping noise, the response is angry looks or verbal abuse about how it is a free country. I find this rude. Does that make me an oddball? Granted, there are many things going on in the world these days that are more significant, but the sound effects from gum are driving me nuts.
--- COTTON IN MY EARS

DEAR COT: Actually, according to traditional etiquette, it has never been socially acceptable to chew gum in public, let alone treat it like bubble gum and crack it. (Though I will say it is satisfying and something I occasionally do when I am by myself.) I am either too inhibited or too hidebound by early training to even chew gum in public, though I see a lot of it around. (Sometimes ex-smokers substitute gum.) I am not surprised you get an earful when you ask the gum-snappers to knock it off; they don't think they're doing anything wrong. As to your query, it is a free country, those people are rude, and you're not an oddball ... just someone with a more finely tuned social sense than some others.
--- MARGO, TRADITIONALLY

Yay, Margo! And yay, "Cotton in my ears"! It's about time somebody acknowledged that gum-chewing in public (especially open-mouthed, which is disgusting) is a violation of etiquette.

Heck, I'd be happy if people just closed their mouths - I'm not after the full politeness of doing what *should* be done - chewing at home only. That would be Utopia!!!

CCE