Well, as usual, my sainted wife had a pretty good alternative to my inclinations. She said I should say something like, "You have a beautiful voice. Can you sing with us?"
Don't know if I could bring myself to do that. This woman does NOT have a beautiful voice, and she finds ways to sing twice as often as everybody else does. And she thinks she knows lots of songs, but often flubs both the lyrics and the melodies.
I get to be catty sometimes, Ake, but only when I'm attacked....
-Joe-