All one hand, and theoretically, it's your most adept hand..
On how people use utensils I am not sure I care. I'll have to think more about it. Someone eating spaghetti strands with a spoon would probably awaken my irritation mode.
CrazyDiamond wrote:Lord Ellpus wrote:...and I wish I was there, as well.
Bloody freezing cold over here at the mo.
It's just as cold where I'm at, trust me.
BTW how can you guys ever forgive us Americans for breaking away from British rule during the American Revolution??
We just thought we'd sit back and watch you muck it all up and laugh quietly in the background.
We were wrong..................until about seven or eight years ago.
And yet it is too soon to be sure about that. Moreover you Brits have a history of backing the wrong side as far as we were concerned. I refer here to our Tories and the Confederacy.
Francis wrote:georgeob1 wrote:Perhaps, but enthusiasm, joy, and hope are the fuel of life.
More than that, George, more than that!
georgeob1 wrote:Besides I'm only sometimes aware of my excesses.
I seldom have excesses..
georgeob1 wrote:For the rest I am what I seem to be. How about you?
I'm definitely not what I seem to be...
goddamn enigmatic Frogs !
What's the matter with a spoon? How you twirl it onto a fork without a spoon for backup?
And loading everything onto the back side, uh, the bottom side, uh, the convex side of the fork--what's that all about?
It is, of course, specious to say that the English backed the Southern Confederacy. Certainly Palmerston hated the United States with a passion almost irrational. It is equally certain that the English working class idolized Lincoln, and the ministry would have been ruined by any attempt to overtly help the Confederacy, or any revelation of secret aid.
James Bulloch (ironically, the uncle of future President Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.) ordered hull #290 at the John Laird and Sons yard in Liverpool. The U.S. Minister protested, when he became aware of the ship abuilding, and Palmerston's government, for however reluctant Palmerston may have been, sent agents from London to seize the hull. Bulloch had been apprised in advance, hull 290 was christened Enrica and put down the Mersey before the government men could arrive. She was provisioned afloat in the Irish Sea (Bulloch was very good at what he did), and made the Azores less than four weeks later, where she was taken into Confederate service and christened Alabama by her new commander, Rafael Semmes.
That is as close as anyone can come to claiming that the English backed the Southern Confederacy, and its a pretty feeble charge.
I meant a spoon alone, Roger, was being facetious. On the other hand, I've heard 'tis thought an american thing to need a spoon with the fork to manage one's spaghetti...
We often do it here, but I gather it is seen as a non hairy chested and effete way to manage one's pasta...one ought to be able to do it with fork and bottom of plate alone....
The better Italian restaurants provide no spoon.
Heehee....which means, in perverse mood, I will sometimes ask for one....
I haven't used one for years and years, yes.. years, but then I'm from California, y'know.
What?
A perversity?
You disappoint me strangely...
I love green olives in my vodka martinis.
Is that an american thing?
When are you NOT in a perverse mood, Ms. Buns?
Just found this thread (why were y'all trying to hide it from me?) and sure as hell ain't gonna read through all 14 pages of posts at this juncture (or any other juncture, come to that [why do we say 'juncture' anyway?]) But I did read the first four or five pages and have just one comment about the European vs American table customs, i.e. the knife/fork switcheroo. I'm right-handed and, like Lord Ellpus on the opposite side, if I tried to stuff food into my mouth with fork held in left hand it would probably go into my ear. The times I've tried eating like a proper European (remembering that I was born in Europe in didn't get to these shores until age 11) but found that I make a very sloppy spectacle that way. Haven't actually put any food in my ear or nose, but usually it falls right back onto the plate. I cannot control my left hand that well. A few, a very few things can be eaten that way. I can certainly cut off a piece of steak or chop and manage to bring it to my mouth with the left hand. But peas? Carrots? Anything that is not one solid piece? Faggidaboutit! I know I look like a barbarian, even to members of my own tribe and band, But there it is. Left hand = useless for feeding oneself.
BTW, Smorgs, thank you for this thread. Having lived here now for more than half a century, I consider myself an American of European extraction and appreciate it when anyone says something nice about us. It's rare enough.
