Do Your Manners Fuss Your Escort?

A show of bad manners! Dorothy is both a “cup-cuddler” and an “elbow-bracer!”

Oh Dorothy! Only one hand on the coffee cup, please. Can’t you see how fussed Paul is because people are watching your show of bad manners?

He’ll invite Polly next time, you may be sure. She’s no “cup-cuddler” or “elbow-bracer.” Nor does she wad her napkin! She lays it across her lap folded double or triple- deftly touching only a corner to her lips. 

Leaving the table to dance, she drops the napkin on her chair. At the close of the meal, she tucks it partly folded - under the edge of the plate as she rises. Charming table manners certainly are an asset! – Santa Ana Journal, 1937

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

Critical Eyes Judge Manners

Kit isn't getting to first base socially. How could she with those atrocious table manners? Notice the stranglehold she has on her knife and fork.

Don't Blunder Unconsciously

Pretty as a picture! Full of pep! Yet Kit isn't getting to first base socially. How could she with those atrocious table manners? Notice the stranglehold she has on her knife and fork.

When she's reduced her steak to bits, she spears a piece, packs peas and potatoes on the back of her fork, starts the whole top-heavy load on a perilous journey to her mouth. And her elbows, raised like wings, strike terror to the ribs of fellow diners.

Acceptable table manners are inconspicuous ones. Well-bred people hold knife and fork lightly, the forefinger extending downward along he handles.

They cut one small piece of meat at a time, never pile several vegetables on the fork at once, keep elbows as nearly as possible at sides while eating. – Santa Ana Journal, 1937

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

Etiquette Humor for Corn Eaters

“Fork never made to eat corn on the cob”?!? Au contraire! Victorian “Green Corn” was a popular food to serve in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Over a sixty to seventy year period, numerous green-corn forks were invented and patented for eating ears of corn on the cob. – The corn fork shown above was made in the 1920’s, as was the patented dish with cover for serving corn on the cob.

Fork Never Made to Eat Corn on the Cob…

May Be Breach of Table Etiquette, But the Fellow Who Attacks the Ear With Two Hands is the One Who Gets the Thrills

There isn't much joy in eating corn on the cob with a fork, is there? I'll say there isn't. At least not for the fellow who likes to get all the thrills that go with hold ing a big, juicy ear in both your mitts. This may not be according to Hoyle, and may be a violation of the rules of table etiquette.

But the fellow who is guided by the old rule that “fingers were made before knives and forks and other eatin’ utensils” and attacks the said big, juicy ear in a way that would make John D. Rockenfeller green with envy, is the guy who gets the thrills and all the trimmings thrown in.

Saw a person a few days ago in a crowded eating place trying to pry corn off a cob with a fork. That may be good, straight-laced table etiquette, but to me that fork seemed about as much in place as the Kaiser in Paris.

Really, I felt sorry for the person, for nearby were others who were getting every bit of the kernels clear down to the place where they were fastened onto the cob. One fellow made the remark that it was so good that he felt like taking it back and asking the waiter to put more corn on his cob.

The only way to eat an ear of corn is to butter it well, with a sprinkling of salt and pepper and then make a “head-on” attack. The fellow who has insecure teeth at a time of this kind is out of luck. The man who eats his corn this way is never happier than when he has finished the job and is licking his mouth with his tongue, unless it is when he is in the middle of the operation.

The same rule applies to watermelons. There is no pleasure using a fork, the real pleasure is running your mouth into the red, juicy fruit, getting every drop of the sweet flavored thing. Yum! Yum!– By Al Falfa of Riverside Daily Press, 1920

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