When first meeting someone, lock your closet door and
save your skeletons for later. You and your new good
friend can invite the skeletons out, have a good laugh,
and dance over their bones later in the relationship. But
now's the time, as the old song says, to "ac-cen-tu-ate
the pos-i-tive and elim-i-nate the neg-a-tive."So far, in this section, you have found assertive methods for
meeting people and mastering small talk. The next is both an
assertive and defensive move to help spare you that pasty smile we
tend to sport when we have no idea what people are talking about.