Experts: Beach Manners Often Go Unheeded

[Champ]

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - Looking for your place in the sun? Fine. Just don't lay your blanket too close to mine. And don't shake it out here, the sand's getting in my eyes.

And whatever you do, don't feed the gulls. Once you do, they'll stick around, squawking and flapping and — when nature calls — playing an icky version of beach blanket bingo.

When it comes to beach etiquette, there is a way to act and a way not to. Even the great outdoors has rules, it turns out. Problem is, they're mostly unwritten and often ignored.

"The beach is such an informal, relaxed kind of place," said etiquette expert Honore McDonough Ervin. "People who might normally have good manners, all good reason just flies out of their head and they do things that are offensive to others."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=816&ncid=816&e=1&u=/ap/20040531/ap_on_re_us/beach_etiquette

[NashVegas]

1. Manners Often Go Unheeded .. Period

"I hate people when they're not polite" - David Byrne

[Nay]

2. Ain't that the truth? People are rude all over the place.

My husband and I went to Brazil last year and were struck by how polite complete strangers were to everyone around them. If you got jostled in the crowd, someone actually said "sorry" or "excuse me" instead of glaring at you like YOU were in their effing way. It was eye-opening.