Parents and caregivers can learn more about how to keep their child safe when travelling in a vehicle at the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation’s educational events in Nanaimo Feb. 16 and Feb. 22. The free car seat check takes place Feb. 16 at fire station No. 2, 2499 Dorman Rd., from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Certified child passenger safety educators will spend about 20 minutes one-on-one with parents showing them proper installation and use of car seats.

The parent workshop is Feb. 22, also at station No. 2, starting at 7 p.m. Expecting parents and parents of newborns will be instructed in the correct use and installation of infant and child car seats, child car seat laws and how to disassemble and reassemble car seats in the 30-minute workshop.

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A few years ago, Andrew Rose was at a meeting with senior wealth advisers from Legg Mason. One of the meeting's participants arrived a little late, and when she entered the room, Rose stood to greet her.

"I was the only one who got up," says Rose, marketing director for the Timonium-based accounting firm Naden/Lean. His move wasn't lost on the executive. "She smiled, and I could tell the small gesture meant something." Perhaps more importantly, he says, his firm "got tangible business from that encounter."

Rose had recently participated in a seminar on professional etiquette at the Center Club, where he learned that standing when a woman enters a room is mandatory, even in our equal opportunity world.

He also learned that clinking glasses is a no-no, as well as how to handle "guys with maniacal handshakes." (Pump three times, and then relax your hand "to reverse the dominance," he reports.) "I was raised in a Southern household and thought I knew a lot about etiquette," says Rose. "But I realized I didn't."

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When Burnaby RCMP busted a sophisticated grow operation on Jan. 26, they weren’t surprised at the over 400 plants inside. What shocked the officers was finding that a family with three children had been living in the same home for some time.

The bust happened after officers executed a search warrant on the home in the 3700-block of Fir Street. The parents face multiple drug-related charges as well as theft of electricity. The Ministry of Children and Family Development has been contacted. Significant health and safety risks of grow-ops include mould and fungus from the high humidity and temperatures.

It’s been the most popular way to greet someone since medieval times but now handshaking may be dying out.

Knights would extend their hands to each other to show they were not holding a weapon and to keep a potential assailant at arm’s length.

But it seems this tradition is being consigned to history. Research shows that fewer than half of young people shake hands.

Teens are more likely to bump fists because they think it is less formal. And the death of the handshake is not the only sign that traditional etiquette is changing...

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 Our little dog Scamp and I went back to school this week. I think I told you we took a class right after Charlie and me got him. I mean, he arrived from Poodle Rescue on a Friday, and we started on Monday. Scamp and me hadn’t really bonded yet. I’d call his name, and he’d turn toward me then cock his head, as if to say, “Who the heck are you?”

In retrospect, that first class was really more for me. When we got our standard poodle Belle, she was six years old and good as gold. I could leave her in the car with my grocery shopping, come back, and Belle wouldn’t have touched a thing. Now, I’m talking rotisserie chicken, deli meats, the kind of stuff that makes my mouth water when I get a whiff of it as I open the car door.

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I have learned over the years not to worry too much about the dangers of personal friends reading my Sunday columns. That is a slight exaggeration, but not too slight. It is a naked and at times jarring fact that most of the people in my life apparently do not know of my modest presence on this page. If pals or acquaintances do read me, they sure are good at keeping it a secret. vActually, once every blue moon, friends or students of mine do indeed comment on an effort in this space. Whether they agree or disagree with me, I always thank them. It's great to have a reader.

Today I am hoping none of my ethics students happen upon these words. Really! If any of them do, he or she will probably shake a finger at me. “You told us in class that manners and issues of politeness were different than questions of ethical right or wrong!” my student might scold me.

This is true. Many a time I have said that rudeness is “wrong” in its own particular way, and that unethical conduct is “wrong” in a different way. I have also said that language is always limited and frail. Thus, at times, a blurring of the line between lousy manners and lousy ethics may occur. The two kinds of wrong dissolve, similar perhaps to the way an ice cube melts on a table top. Melted ice can be a bit messy.

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There's a girl in the passenger seat, arm hanging out of the window at 45 degrees, flicking the ash off a cigarette. She looks at us idly up and down through her copied designer sunglasses. Then she reaches inside and deliberately tosses a large empty soft-drink container on to the road in front of us. It rolls around, spilling ice cubes.

The girl gives us another look. Grins. Stuff you! Who's going to dare remonstrate with her in this age of road rage and common assault? So she gives us the finger. Then the ute blasts off with a shriek of burnt rubber. Welcome to the "stuff you" generation. Where you know you can get away with it. Scene Two: A local liquor store.

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Students learn mathematics not just to solve mathematics problems, but in order to practice thinking logically and apply knowledge in reality. They learn literature not just to write good essays, but also because they need to learn how to feel beauty and strive for healthy things in their life,” he proposed.

Tuoi Tre: Many students and teachers complain that they are now under hard pressure from the heavy curriculum. They only have time to teach and receive scientific knowledge and do not have time for other things.

Phung Khac Binh: MOET has asked schools and teachers to integrate the teaching of manners and behavior flexibly into their curriculum, arousing the mentality capabilities and creativeness of their students. However, not every teacher can do that well.$HOME4

I think that teaching life skills within regular subjects will not make the loads heavier, while it would help lessons and subjects become more attractive to students. The most important thing is that teachers need good teaching methods.Tuoi Tre: Do you mean that the decline in morality, lifestyle and the lack of life skills of many students nowadays is because teachers do not have suitable methods to convey requirements set by MOET?

Binh: Not really. The teaching of manners and helping students form their personalities and life skills needs to be done via different channels. It would not be realistic to rely totally on the school system. I think that we should start a national program on morality education for the increasing number of students who quit school and “lead a life like dust.”Tuoi Tre: What does MOET think should be done to improve the teaching of manners and scientific knowledge?

Binh: From 2010-2011, MOET will make life skills a part of curricular subjects at general schools, from primary to high school. MOET has assigned the Scientific Education Institute to design the syllabus.Such teaching has been carried out on a trial basis in some places already. We have trained teachers, organized forums for discussions and exchanges views in seven cities and provinces. 

Q: I've been divorced for four years and living with my fiancee for a year. We plan to marry in four months. She has two children, 8 and 12, and I have twin sons, age 15. My sons' birthday is coming up and I usually go to dinner with my parents, my ex, and my kids. I really don't want to go to dinner with my ex. When is it OK to start celebrating without my ex and start celebrating with my new partner? My ex lives one mile away and we have shared custody 50/50. My sons' birthday is on my day this year.

A: The first rule to good ex-etiquette is "Put the children first" and nowhere in your question do we hear anything about the considerations of your sons. You have already set precedent -- for the last four years you've celebrated the kids' birthday with the kids, your parents, and your sons' mother.

If your sons believe the change is prompted by your fiancee, or even your fiancee's presence, that could sabotage their relationship and alienate them from you. We certainly understand how one wants to move on after divorce, but in your case it's particularly important to be mindful of how a change would be perceived by your children.

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I got a note from an old friend saying some divorce dating topics on the blog would be helpful to her. Here’s what she wrote: “Not sure if you know that I a divorced mom of 2 …  I have been on my own for several years and have been very careful with dating, integrating etc…  I have been dating someone for over a year and am now starting to integrate the kids into the picture.  I have been very slow in the process as I do not believe in parading men in and out of my kids life, etc…

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