Boundaries

Oftentimes, what I find most mortifying about Mother isn't what she says, it's that people consider what she says seriously and respond accordingly.  As much as I don't understand how the woman operates, I understand why people answer her even less.  Allow me to illustrate:

At lunch yesterday, Mother asked a 20-year-old guy who we've known since he was little, whether he thought the Deegans, another family we've all known forever whose kids he had grown up with, whether he agreed that the Deegan* girls all turned out rather attractively.  This is a question, if ever posed to me, I would first vomit in my mouth a little, then have smiled at and found a way to get out of.  But not 20-year-old guy.  Yes, he said, he thought they were.  So Mother pressed.  Given the choice of say, Prunella* and Francine*, both girls he had grown up with who were his age, who did he find better looking?  Again he answered.  And again, I tried to stab myself with the forks on the table. 

*Yes, Arthur characters used to go to our church.  I did not sub in fake names to protect anyone.