DEAR MISS MANNERS: Please settle an ongoing dispute with my wife. When we attend a concert or show with open seating, is it polite to sit directly in front of someone already seated when there are plenty of other seats available that don’t block someone’s view?

Both of us are rather tall, and I believe it’s more polite for us to sit towards the back -- or at least not in front of others when possible. She says we should just sit anywhere we like.

GENTLE READER: That you have limited your question to theater seating is an enormous relief to Miss Manners. Because what you have here are two fundamentally opposed ways of approaching life, and she hopes this does not lead you two into worse conflicts.

One approach is that our only job is to look after our own interests; others can look aft

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