Oh, Miss Manners…?

I needed to go from my desk to the kitchenette to clean out my drinking cup. As I leave my desk, I pop a nice tasty morsel into my mouth. After all, you need nourishment for such a long trip, obviously. It’s a tasty morsel of dried apricot, nice and chewy, and it’s going to be there for a little bit of time. Quicker than the crunch, smack, snarf of the other bits of trail mix I’m nibbling on at the time.

So I’m walking along the corridor and a colleague encounters me. He says, “Hello.” I, with a nice tasty morsel in my mouth, don’t say anything in response.

But it got me to thinking:

Is it ruder to not say “Hello” in response, or to talk with your mouth full?