[thechat] american table manners -- fork in right or left..?

[Joel D Canfield]

> What, you mean you don't follow these rules?
> (and no, i'm not being sarcastic)

I leave knife in left, fork in right, and occasionally use the knife as
a pusher to slide recalcitrant bits onto the fork. I pretty much drop
the knife where it's convenient to grab it again. I studiously ignore
Emily. Sorry, Em.

This, however, is my habit over the past 18 months, after a lifetime of
unintentionally following Emily's advice (I do still like her clear
explanation of how a gentleman removes his hat, glove, and cane when
approaching a woman whose hand he's going to shake; should be read by
every procedural writer on the planet.)

I guess I've just reached the point where practical final really does
outweigh social convention. This seems to have coincided with the period
when I started living with someone else's wife while we each waited for
our divorces, which is also a bit of 'outweighing social convention', I
guess.

> Apart from the one about the direction of the blade, it's 
> common place in iceland to do so. And there are probably 
> more, but you'll have to meet me and dine with me to figure 
> them out ;)

Love to! How far is it from Ireland to Iceland?

joel