Websites of the Month: A Kind Reception

To the Hilt
www.behospitable.com

Produced by The Hilton family of hotels, the Be Hospitable site has fun stories and sound ideas about hospitality. It also offers icebreakers, toast ideas, and tips on how to integrate hospitable actions into everyday life. Readers are invited to add their own hospitality tips, and will be notified if theirs are selected for the site. Be Hospitable also has a "be-greeting," which allows visitors to use pull-down screens of phrases, titles, and punctuation to create greetings—it's like Mad Libs for pleasantries and thank yous. On a more serious note, the site delves into Conrad Hilton's philosophy about hospitality, which is based on the Greek myth of Prometheus.


Going Postal Can Be A Good Thing
www.emilypost.com

A big part of being hospitable is acting with grace; no one knows grace better than the legendary Emily Post. Emily's legacy is upheld today by a third generation of Posts: Peggy, Cindy, and Peter, the last of whom specializes in etiquette for men and lends a lighthearted and self-deprecating tone to the traditionally staid and formal field of appropriate behavior. Although the Emily Post Institute continues to offer advice about wedding, family, and everyday etiquette, the site also provides a wealth of information on subjects particularly appropriate for today: business gift etiquette, videoconferencing etiquette, and special topics such as a "Chart to Dress the Part from Beach Casual to White Tie" or "When the Conversation Turns to War."