Letters to the Editor
This letter is associated with the following article:
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You don't owe explanations--
You don't owe personal information to anyone, although you may choose to share your experience with your close friends and close family. Or maybe you don't.
If you don't want to say you met on the Internet, it is perfectly mannerly to say "Oh, that's too involved a story to get into right now, how is your son/husband/mother doing since his/his/her big game/unemployment/heart surgery?" (Well, leave off the unemployment questions, that might be a little rude.)
If the person is so rude that he or she continues to ask, well, you just repeat your answer in exactly the same words. There are some insensitive folk who just take some time to figure out that you really just don't intend to answer personal questions about your dating life.