Damn you, Emily Post!

Sometimes, it's hard to be a lady.
Case in point.  Today, I'm sitting in shul, in my usual spot in the back.  (I like to slip in unnoticed--that way I can have some alone time--just me, my ArtScroll siddur, and G-d.)  As usual, the Gabby Old Women are in front of me, chatting away.  (Not all of them are old, but they're all older than me.)  They chat through davening.  They chat through laining.  They would chat through the rabbi's speech, but the rabbi has a death stare that could freeze water in July.  And he aims it at anyone who DARES to try and talk through his speech.  Because I usually slip in during the laining, I end up sitting in the back so as not to disturb anyone.  And, as much as I want to throw something at them, I content myself with tuning them out and shooting them little death stares of my own, aimed precisely at the napes of their necks.
Today, however, they were completely oblivious to their environment.  During the post-Musaf Kaddish, their whispered chatting escalates to loud gabbing--DURING KADDISH!  Finally, right before Ein Keloheinu, I leave the back and skulk up front to an area where the rabbi's death stare has some effect.  (I figure my little march forward was the lesser of two evils.  Otherwise, I WOULD have chucked a crumpled-up bulletin at their heads.)
Unfortunately, politeness dictates that a younger person cannot correct her elders.  Therefore, I can't do what I would love to do, which is to tap them on the shoulder and politely ask them to either shut up or take it outside.  This is a shul, and they're disrupting me, and everyone around them.  Unfortunately, I am a lady.  And a lady cannot correct her elders.   (I probably shouldn't be blogging about it, but, hey, it's anonymous!)