My mother is in Colorado, visiting my brother, but it’s Mother’s Day, so I thought I would dedicate today’s blog to my dear mother, Judith S. Howe.

My mother is extremely charming. She has an old-fashioned sensibility when it comes to manners and applies them to modern situations, often with interesting results. For example, once, one of her grandchildren persuaded her to take them through the drive-through window at McDonald’s. Judy drove up to the speaker, and said, smiling brightly at it, “Hi, I’m Judy Howe! I’d like two orders of Chicken McNuggets, please.” Then she waited in the traffic line and when it was her turn, she pulled up to the window, and said, gaily, “Hi! Judy Howe!” I’m not sure if this story is as funny in blog form, because you have to get the accent with it. She talks a little bit like Katherine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story.