Word: bulling
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Grooming John Bull for his first day in Mauretania, Cheke warns him to expect callers and adds, "the president of the Chamber of Commerce . . . would resent being received by a young man wearing ... a bright green pullover." And Third Secretary Bull had best adjust to being familiarly called "John" by embassy colleagues; "after a day or two ... he may return this vulgar compliment...
...Henry Sealingwax's reception calls for young Bull's first big show of tact. "One of his chief duties is to be affable to bores." Each official party has important guests "devoid of social graces and who stand around in dreary isolation." Nothing, Cheke affirms, is worse than "dreary individuals standing in gloomy and solitary silence." To save the reception England expects young John Bull to find his tongue and chat...
...Vacant Stare. "The thing to avoid is silence," Cheke has found, and this goes especially for dinners. "On sitting down, Mr. Bull should without delay engage one of his two neighbors in conversation . . . though at some stage of the meal you will find that both your neighbors are deep in conversation but not with you." All that John can do is "make the best of a bad job, be careful not to fall into a vacant stare and take the first opportunity of getting back into the talk." If the British custom of retiring after dinner is not observed...
...John Bull has an aversion to public funerals, he had best overcome it. "In some countries, [they] are unrivaled as occasions in which to cultivate acquaintances. How many an interesting political connection was first conceived by a certain foreign head of a mission in a convulsive handshake in a funeral cortege and cemented by giving him a lift home in his car from the ceremony...
Sometimes, the going may get tough. John Bull must hold in mind the merit of the reply courteous, a point best made by Lord Halifax, whose answer to an egg barrage in Detroit was, "How lucky you are to have eggs to throw." Cheke's concluding advice: "Above all, Mr. and Mrs. Bull should school themselves and remain masters of their tempers...