I hail from the South, well, North Florida, but it still counts. I come bred to breathe every complimentary phrase that comes to mind. Taking the adage “If have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all,” (or whatever) and turning it into “If you have only nice things to say, say all of them.” This was all fine and great until I started my slow move up the east coast — especially when I arrived finally in New York. You know, here strangers generally don’t much care if you like their backpacks or blouses. They usually would prefer themselves to sit in solitary silence and me to keep my suffocating enthusiasm to myself.

Besides potentially skeezing out strangers, excessive compliments can come off as insincere. Like tossing one or two to each buddy in the circle by the keg might constitute as excessive. But how do I choose who to lavish with my appreciation if I favor an item on each body? How much is too much?

How do you handle sharing your appreciation of others’ style? Do you share it?