STEER CLEAR
I've noticed that there are wide variations among cultures in people's need for personal space. The English, for instance, tend to need a lot of it. One of the funniest scenes in the movie The Full Monty is the one in which the jobless steelworkers pulsate to a disco beat in the unemployment line. Even as they break into spontaneous dance, each one maintains an invisible but precise bubble of space around himself. I've learned that when I get on an elevator in London and everyone backs away, it isn't a reflection on my hygiene.
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