November 3, 2011; Source: People | After covering Kim Kardashian’s announcement yesterday that the value of her wedding gifts from her 72-day marriage to Kris Humphries would be donated—to the Dream Foundation—I was embarrassed to note that I had completely missed the boat on a finer point of etiquette (and not for the first time by any means) by not reminding her that the right thing to do is to RETURN THEM!

According to Lizzie Post, who is the author of Emily Post’s Etiquette 18th Edition, “I don’t want to come across as saying that charity wouldn’t be a great way to handle it. It’s just that in that case, you’re making a charitable donation on someone else’s behalf under your name.”

Post also points out—as we did—that Kardashian is painted as “undeservingly “generous,” saying that the 31-year-old will “get a huge tax write-off for [the donated items], because I am sure they are not Target gifts.”

But we imagine that there may be a slight problem in effecting the return.

Maybe, while the marriage still seemed viable, the couple cozied up in their new twin Snuggies, or used the electric teakettle. We would suggest that these be replaced with NEW ONES IDENTICAL TO THOSE GIVEN, and returned. Do not, of course, return the used goods. Nuff said. We’ll try to steer clear of this topic in future. —Ruth McCambridge