No shoe covers, no hors d'oeuvres

According to Ann Landers, passing out shoe covers to dinner guests is becoming de rigueur. (That's French for hunky-dory.) In the old days, houseguests could wipe their feet on your Welcome mat, and everything was OK. As folks became finickier about their floors, hosts started asking guests to take off their shoes. Now hosts have taken things one step further. If you want to keep guests from grinding the world's dirt into your favorite rug, always have plenty of cloth shoe covers handy to give out to everyone who crosses your threshold. Either that or cover your carpets in clear plastic and avoid the issue altogether.