Rick Nelson and Claude Peck dispense unasked-for advice about clothing, etiquette, culture, relationships, grooming and more.

CP: It appears that we doled out some bad advice.

RN: Um, "we"?

CP: A reader has complained that our spring wardrobe tips were a disaster for his body type and that, as a result, a potential sweetheart dropped him like a hot rock. I replied to his e-mail, telling him, as I always do in these cases, that it was all your fault.

RN: You are, naturally, as blameless as a BP executive.

CP: Of course. I make sure that any grooming or fashion advice I may put in the Glance is entirely factual, verifiable, unerringly correct. I give it my blowout-protected, unconditional, government-backed guarantee.

RN: And here I thought you were making this all up as you go along. Lord knows I am.

CP: My sympathy goes out to the reader, his family and his love interest. In the end, though, we can only advise. Ultimate responsibility for choosing an unsuitable pair of jeans or a dreadful chemise must lie with the individual. Or perhaps the maker.

RN: Yes, dear. I think that you, Mr. Responsibility Dodger, ought to look to the sterling example set by that American treasure Stephen Sondheim.

CP: What? Do you have a book at home titled "How to Apply Show Tunes to 750 Everyday Situations"?

RN: Shush. At some long-ago Tony Awards broadcast, when presenter Lee Remick described the run of her first B'way musical -- Sondheim's "Anyone Can Whistle" -- as "six of the happiest days of my life," Sondheim copped right to it, saying he was the reason the show was an infamous flop. Of course, I was shouting "No" at the TV screen. I mean, the songs "A Parade in Town" and "Everybody Says Don't" justify reviving that turkey all on their own.

CP: What about movies that bomb? Did Dustin Hoffman eat crow for "Ishtar"? Or Kevin Costner for "Fishtar"? I don't recall the Church of Scientology copping to the fiasco that was "Battlefield Earth."

RN: Like we should expect the septic tank that is Hollywood to set ethical standards? Look what Lucille Ball did to "Mame." The nation is still waiting for that much-needed mea culpa.

CP: That's about as likely to happen as for the heads of BP, Halliburton and Transocean to step up and face the lawsuits. In Japan, these CEOs would be committing ritual seppuku on TV. Here, they shift the blame faster than the Vatican transfers an abusive priest.

RN: Once again, corporate America leads by example. Just like us.

Email: witheringglance@startribune.com.

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