Manners For Sniffle Season

He Goofed! This young lady is not waiting to see if his germs are Asian or domestic. She’s ducking fast!

Winter, the germiest season of all, has arrived in many parts of the world. All in all, the times seems ripe to review germ etiquette: 

• When you sneeze or cough, cover your mouth with a handkerchief. 
• If there isn't time, at least muffle the explosion with your hand, turning your head away from the nearest person.
• Blowing your nose at the dinner table is permissible, but don't make a production of it and don't apologize; the latter merely calls attention to the act. 
• If your cold is a whopper, carry extra handkerchiefs.
• Fastidious souls are offended at the sight of a battle-worn hankie, and even non-fastidious souls don't enjoy seeing one bloom from someone's breast pocket. Once used, a breast handkerchief stops being picturesque. 
• P.S. to tissue users: Don't blow and throw. How many litter with tissue debris? Alas, too many. 
•  Q & A on P's & Q's 

(Q) “Is it passe to ask guests if they want to wash hands before dinner?” Mrs. S.J., Cleveland 
(A) Until germs are passé, asking will never be.

 

—Portions taken from Don Goodwin‘s ‘Male Polish,’ 1957

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Sneeze Snub is Influenza Etiquette

Image

Avoid worry and turn your back on sneezes — In a time when the world faces another influenza pandemic, and briefly changes the etiquette for greeting others (avoid handshaking by touching elbows and avoid cheek kissing by putting one’s hand over one’s heart), it’s time to take a look at what was taught a hundred years ago. –An image of a Red Cross nurse published in Illustrated Current News, 1918. — Photo source, National Library of Medicine

Cover Coughs and Sneezes 🩺 Wash Hands Frequently and Thoroughly 🩺 Self Quarantine if Sick 🩺 Avoid Handshaking 🩺 Forego Cheek Kissing 🩺 Work from Home if Possible 🩺 Avoid Large Crowds🩺 Avoid Others Who May be Sick

The following is a summary of the talk given last week by Dr W. W. Crawford on the subject, “Preventive Measures Against Colds and Influenza.” An ordinary so-called cold may be the forerunner of such specific diseases as Measles, Influenza, Whooping Cough, Bronchitis and Tuberculosis. The germs of Colds and Influenza leave the body in the secretions of the mouth and nose, and enter the body through the same route. It is health etiquette to turn your back on sneezes. Remember coughing, sneezing and dust spread Influenza, and overcrowding helps these along. 

Remember, the close relationship between the nose and throat with the ears and sinuses. Therefore, see to it that your nose and throat are kept clean. Keep away from a house when the lady is sweeping with a broom or buy her a vacuum cleaner. Immunity may be artificial or natural. Keep your natural immunity up to the highest possible point by leading clean, wholesome lives. A great deal to do in keeping well is in your hands. Remember, doctors are only human and cannot do the impossible.— From an article in the San Diego Union, 1920

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia©️ Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Sneezing Etiquette

“If you are around other people, then the acceptable thing to do is to sneeze into your arm. More specifically, do it into the inside crook of your elbow or into your bicep. That way, the particles get trapped into your clothing and not ejected into the air.” – photo source, Irish Times.com                

Please Don’t Use Your Hands

The standard American greeting comes with a handshake. We open doors with our hands. We eat with our hands, touch our faces, and share everything from pens to computer keyboards. That's why I'm so grossed out when people sneeze into their hands. This is not just a distant memory from elementary school or an observation while riding on Muni. I've seen it happen all around me on campus: sniffling faces and knuckles dragging across noses. Then there's the inevitable sneeze - a loud and forceful eruption of saliva and mucus droplets - usually followed by a chorus of “bless yous.” Some of us need a refresher on sneezing etiquette. 

First, if you are really sick, stay at home! That way, in the safety of your own abode, you can sneeze any way you want to. You can get creative and do a 360-degree sneeze and not pose a risk of infecting anyone else (unless you have roommates, of course). If you are around other people, then the acceptable thing to do is to sneeze into your arm. More specifically, do it into the inside crook of your elbow or into your bicep. That way, the particles get trapped into your clothing and not ejected into the air. 

I've seen variations of this technique, including sneezing into the inside of your shirt or armpit... whatever acts as a convenient barrier is fine. If you forget and end up sneezing into your hands, that's OK, but don't pretend as if everything you just unleashed into your hands magically disappeared. Wash your hands right away! And if that is not feasible, then use a squeeze of some hand sanitizer. With these quick tips, not only will you help stop the spread of germs, but you'll look classy doing it. –From an article by M. Mandap, Synapse, UCFS, 2011

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Furcifer, Forks and Coryat

Above– A “sucket” fork and spoon combination for eating gingered fruits and sticky foods. “It is true that we have instances of forks even so far back as the pagan Anglo-Saxon period, but they are often found coupled with spoons...” “The dinner was the largest and most ceremonious meal of the day. The hearty character of this meal is remarked by a foreign traveller in England, who published his “Mémoires et Observations” in French in 1698: “Les Anglois,” he tells us, “mangent beaucoup à diner; ils mangent à reprises, et remplissent le sac. Leur souper est leger. Gloutons à midi, fort sobres au soir.” – (The English, eat a lot at dinner; they eat on a regular basis, and fill the bag. Their supper is light. Wolverines at noon, very sober at night.)

In the sixteenth century, dinner still began with the same ceremonious washing of hands as formerly; and there was considerable ostentation in the ewers and basins used for this purpose. This custom was rendered more necessary by the circumstance that at table people of all ranks used their fingers for the purposes to which we now apply a fork. This article was not used in England for the purpose to which it is now applied, until the reign of James I. It is true that we have instances of forks even so far back as the pagan Anglo-Saxon period, but they are often found coupled with spoons, and on considering all the circumstances, I am led to the conviction that they were in no instance used for feeding, but merely for serving, as we still serve salad and other articles, taking them out of basin or dish with a fork and spoon. In fact, to those who have not been taught the use of it, a fork must necessarily be a very awkward and inconvenient instrument. We know that the use of forks came from Italy, the country to which England owed many of the new fashions of the beginning of the seventeenth century. It is curious to read Coryat’s account of the usage of forks at table as he first saw it in that country in the course of his travels. 

“I observed,” says he, “a custome in all those Italian cities and townes through which I passed, that is not used in any other country that I saw in my travels, neither doe I thinke that any other nation of Christendome doth use it, but only Italy. The Italian, and also most strangers that are commorant in Italy, doe alwaies at their meales use a little forke, when they cut their meate. For while with their knife which they hold in one hande they cut the meat out of the dish, they fasten their forke, which they hold in their other hande, upon the same dish, so that whatsoever he be that sitting in the company of any others at meale, should unadvisedly touch the dish of meate with his fingers, from which all at the table do cut, he will give occasion of offence unto the company, as having transgressed the lawes of good manners, insomuch that for his he shall be at the least brow-beaten, if not reprehended in wordes. 

This forme of feeding I understand is generally used in all places of Italy, their forkes being for the most part made of yron or steele, and some of silver, but those are used only by gentlemen. The reason of this their curiosity is, because the Italian cannot by any means indure to have his dish touched with fingers, seeing all men’s fingers are not alike cleane. Hereupon I myself thought good to imitate the Italian fashion by this forked cutting of meate, not only while I was in Italy, but also in Germany, and oftentimes in England since I came home; being once quipped for that frequent using of my forke by a certain learned gentleman, a familiar friend of mine, one Mr. Lawrence Whittaker, who in his merry humour doubted not to call me at table furcifer, only for using a forke at feeding, but for no other cause.” Furcifer, in Latin, it need hardly be observed, meant literally one who carries a fork, but its proper signification was, a villain who deserves the gallows.

The usage of forks thus introduced into England, appears soon to have become common. It is alluded to more than once in Beaumont and Fletcher, and in Ben Jonson, but always as a foreign fashion. In Jonson’s comedy of “The Devil is an Ass,” we have the following dialogue:

Meerc. Have I deserv’d this from you two, for all
My pains at court to get you each a patent?
Gilt. For what?
Meerc. Upon my project o’ the forks.
Sle. Forks? what be they?
Meerc. The laudable use of forks,
Brought into custom here, as they are in Italy,
To th’ sparing o’ napkins.

In fact the new invention rendered the washing of hands no longer so necessary as before, and though it was still continued as a polite form before sitting down to dinner, the practice of washing the hands after dinner appears to have been entirely discontinued.” – A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England, During the Middle Ages, By Thomas Wright, Esq., MA. FSA., 1862 

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Etiquette and Moralizing Character

Petrus Alphonsi's rules for diners explained a necessity of eating only from one's own bowl, taking small bites, wiping the mouth before drinking, and emptying the mouth before speaking. – "Alfonsi's fame rests mainly on 'thirty-three tales' composed in Latin, at the beginning of the 12th century. This work is a collection of oriental tales of 'moralizing character' or manners." – Mary Ellen Snodgrass

Storyteller and moralist Petrus Alphonsi's Disciplina Clericalis, or Training for a Gentleman, (ca 1100 CE) written in the form of a dialogue between father and son, explained the rudiments of offering guests water for washing hands. Rules for diners explained a necessity of eating only from one's own bowl, taking small bites, wiping the mouth before drinking, and emptying the mouth before speaking.

Similar guidebooks reminded the polite guest never to dredge food in the salt cellar. Correct salting required lifting grains of salt by means of a clean knife blade or extracting a pinch a time with clean fingers. An Italian guide, The Treatise on Courtesy, (ca 1200 CE), of Tomasino di Circlaria (or Thomasin von Zerklaere), rooted its advice in musings on gentility and correct behavior a table. The sensible precepts set forth in and other early European books on manners has changed little up to the present time. – Encyclopedia of Kitchen History

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor of the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia