I AM THE FORCE

The Best Responses to Rude Behavior
How to stand your ground and avoid blowing your top

Highway Lane Cutters
Instance: You're heading somewhere on the interstate, minding your own business, when a car suddenly swerves into your lane inches ahead of you, barely missing your bumper but giving you plenty of time to fume about it.

Advice: If you've been cut off, "take a deep breath and let it go,"says Dini von Mueffling, coauthor of The Art and Power of Being a Lady (Grove Press, $12, www.amazon.com). "You pick your battles in life, and when health and body are at stake, it's just not worth the trouble. And it takes so much less energy to ignore it than to work yourself up over it." Don't underestimate the danger: A 1997 AAA study of more than 10,000 aggressive-driving incidents found that at least 218 people were killed and another 12,610 injured when drivers got angry.