Sweet, sweet vindication!

Isn't the internet great? Google, and other search engines, are a dream come true. Instant research at the click of a button! Why am I extolling the virtues of instant information on the internet?

My wife was teaching our son to cut his own meat last night. She cuts and eats her meat one way, and I do it another. She chose to teach him her way, which is fine, but I thought it was funny how explicitly she was instructing him her way, and I lodged an objection that I didn't think she was teaching the only right way. I wasn't arguing for her to teach my way, only letting her know, on the record, that I still maintain that my way is perfectly acceptable, and not impolite, crude or wrong. I was also joking a bit, because that's the sort of thing you do in a deposition, and is not normally used at the dinner table. Of course we got in a little argument about it, but nothing serious. Well, today, I have chosen this public forum to declare my resounding victory! I'm doing it here so that my wife knows I'm being funny, and not spitefully throwing something in her face. I would never do that here, only in the privacy of our home.

Check this out:

There are two ways to use a knife and fork to cut and eat your food. They are the American style and the European or Continental style. Either style is considered appropriate. In the American style, one cuts the food by holding the knife in the right hand and the fork in the left hand with the fork tines piercing the food to secure it on the plate. Cut a few bite-size pieces of food, then lay your knife across the top edge of your plate with the sharp edge of the blade facing in. Change your fork from your left to your right hand to eat, fork tines facing up. (If you are left-handed, keep your fork in your left hand, tines facing up.) The European or Continental style is the same as the American style in that you cut your meat by holding your knife in your right hand while securing your food with your fork in your left hand. The difference is your fork remains in your left hand, tines facing down, and the knife in your right hand. Simply eat the cut pieces of food by picking them up with your fork still in your left hand.

And this:

The European, or "Continental," style of using knife and fork is somewhat more efficient, and its practice is also common in the United States, where left-handed children are no longer forced to learn to wield a fork with their right hands. According to this method, the fork is held continuously in the left hand and used for eating. When food must be cut, the fork is used exactly as in the American style, except that once the bite has been separated from the whole, it is conveyed directly to the mouth on the downward-facing fork. Regardless of which style is used to operate fork and knife, it is important never to cut more than one or two bites at one time.

There's more:

This advice applies as well to the European, or Continental, dining technique in
which the left hand holds the fork and the right the knife.

And here's a person after my own heart:

In the US, etiquette dictates that you cut with the knife in the dominant hand
and the fork in the other hand to brace the food as you cut. When you finish the
cut, the knife is placed on the rim of the plate, sharp edge facing in, the fork
is then moved to the dominant hand to eat the cut piece while the other hand
goes in the lap.

After living in Europe, where they don't do all this switching around, I decided that the US etiquette is crazy and have adopted the Euro way.
bristolz, Jan 04 2005

Here's the google search, just to comically overload the point. Over 30 thousand results!

Now I'm not claiming that my execution of the European, or Continental, method is correct and does not look unseemly, but I didn't make it up. ;-)

I love you, Sweetie!
:-* :-* :-*

iPod: "Suzanne" by Weezer, "Flawed" by Pond, "Mother" by The Police, and "World is Static" by Jimmy Eat World.