QUOTE OF THE DAY. Miss Manners is unimpressed with the evolution of senior prom. (I remember when this was junior prom.)

Her objections to it are that the prom has become crass, and that it serves as a training ground for even crasser weddings.

What brought the institution to this pass?

And so the pattern for that anachronistic institution, the prom, is taken from the lives of pop celebrities -- the suddenly enriched who go wild.

And what ought the young aspire to?

A hint: It is not riding around town in an impossibly long and expensive car, throwing up.

Quite.