I have a mention of bowing in my column today — now, how would that subject have come up? — and have received a fair amount of related mail. Some of it is from Japan: where they know how to bow (as Obama does not). I mean, if you’re going to do it — certainly before the emperor — you might as well do it right. I thought I would publish one letter, not from Japan, but from Omaha, Neb.:

Dear Jay,
When I was 15, I went to an international Boy Scout jamboree that was held in Sweden. This was 1979. It was originally scheduled for Iran, but the shah got ousted and the organizers decided Sweden would be safer. Anyway, I was among a group of Scouts who were selected to meet Carl XVI Gustaf, the king of Sweden. Beforehand, we were told how to act: Don’t wear your hat, don’t shake hands unless he first extends his (he never did), and don’t bow. Why? Because we were not his subjects. We were frickin’ Boy Scouts and we didn’t bow to somebody else’s king. But I did enjoy meeting him. He was very nice and I appreciate that he came to meet us.

And if a Boy Scout did bow — which he wouldn’t, before a foreign king — he would be prepared.