When getting shushed by a pro is the only thing that works

My wife Liz and I went to the movies yesterday afternoon to see "Manchester by the Sea." If you've seen it, you know how stunning and absorbing it is. And how maddening it would be to have chatterboxes in the theater disrupting such a wondrous film.

There were two middle-aged women a couple of rows behind us who wouldn’t shut up. I glared at them. Liz glared at them. I asked them to be quiet. None of which did any good. They continued blathering as they shoveled food into their mouths, and I could see, out of the corner of my eye, that Liz was about to lose it.

Liz is a school librarian. When she finally reached her boiling point, she turned around and, in her best librarian voice, shushed the blabbermouths. It was a long, loud, take-no-prisoners, don't-mess-with-me kind of shush. Quite impressive. We didn’t hear a peep after that.