不管你是谁，你的对话中很容易不小心漏掉一句反唇相讥的恭维话。也许是过分强调了“实际上”这样的词，或者是在说了一些好话之后意外的“但是”，但不管怎样，这对接受方来说都很烦人。男子气概的艺术创造了“餐桌规则”来解决这个问题。

这里的意思是，如果你不确定一句恭维话是反手的话，就把它用在你所说的关于某人烹饪的话上。如果在餐桌上听起来不合适，那么作为恭维也可能不合适。以下是他们的几个例子：

• You've lost a lot of weight! You still have a ways to go, but keep at it! → The food was pretty good. You haven't succeeded in making it truly delicious yet, but keep at it!
• I really like your site. Not all of the articles, but most of them. → I really enjoyed dinner. I didn't care for the green beans and mashed potatoes, but the other stuff was good.
• That's a really good college, for a state school. → This is a really good cake, for something made from a box.
• You're pretty athletic, for a short chubby guy. → Your food was pretty good, for someone so new to cooking.
• Lol, a lot of people don't like your humor, but I think you are really funny. → People had told me bad things about your cooking, but I really liked it.
• Great picture! You must have a really nice camera! → Great food! You must have a really fancy oven!
• Your paintings are actually good → Dinner was actually good.

这是一个非常简单的方法来检查任何意外错误的称赞。除此之外，如果你在恭维的时候说“实际上”，你可能应该保持沉默。

如何避免反唇相讥|男子气概的艺术

米尔贾姆·斯特鲁佩克摄。