The Complete Idiot's Guide to Etiquette

I just finished reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to Etiquette by Mary Mitchell. I'm something of a slob when it comes to eating. Which was never a problem until recently. In the past my parents, aunts and other doting relatives took my unbridled enthusiasm at the dinner table to be an acknowledgement of their culinary skills. However after becoming a corporate slave my clients and colleagues were less wont to look upon kindly at my take-no-prisoners attitude to dining. Thus the book.

The book dilly dallies a bit about the usual riff-raff of how etiquette is meant to show respect, kindness etc etc., before it jumps straight into the dining etiqutte section - or in this case, steps lightly into the dining etiquette section, gracefully raising her dress a little above her ankle.

Some random samplings from the book:

-Before you sit down at your table, introduce yourself to any dining companions you don’t know and say hello to those you do.If you simply sit down, you risk having to shout your name across the centerpiece to people who, if they can hear you, won’t remember what you said.

-Tilt the soup plate away from you to get the last bit of soup.

-The toast originated during the Middle Ages, when people put a piece of scorched bread into a tankard of beer or wine because they thought it improved the flavor of the drink.

-If you’re the one being toasted, just listen quietly to the toast and then say a quick thank-you. Don’t even put your hand on your glass, much less drink.

At one point in the narrative the author says that she knows ordinarily sensible people who turn buffet meals into the siege of the Bastille as they seem to think the food will be taken away before they get some or that others will take all of the food, leaving them to starve. Which is strange, because I don't remember us ever getting introduced.