Spoons and forks

No, I just don't like people taking credit for my original thoughts, which I then discover were not mine at all, and even worse, weren't even the same!

Say whatever you like and stun people with your intelligence- that's what I do

You're just out to confuse me and get me into trouble for getting my references wrong, aren't you?

It must have sneaked into my subconscious, nag, and popped out again. I will never use the term again without acknowledging its inventor: Nag-a-ram

Oh no, just checked, I was half non-U!

I think you'll find I invented it, Bags - if you look back a few posts....

Hm. I think I like the half-U idea.

Haha, petallus I can't help you as I do half of what you do so I'm only half-U

toilet, sitting-room (front room more often in Scotland), napkin, settee.

Dilemma: having been brought up to say toilet, lounge, serviette, settee etc. would it be betraying my roots to change to lavatory, living room, napkin and sofa?

Incidentally, the plans of our house call it a lounge and we went from lavvy to toilet all those years ago in an effort to be refined.

Advice please from all those 'U' gransnetters out there.

Oh, were you serious, Stansgran?

stansgran Do you have any friends who can lend you some cutlery? Or go to a charity shop - they usually have whole boxes full and are glad to get a couple of pounds for them..

Tell 'em it's a 'Bring your own Cutlery' party - all the rage, apparently!

But if I served soup followed by meat and two veg and then apple crumble I wouldn't have enough big spoons to go round-if six people sat down that would be 12 spoons over soup and pud + 2 in each bowl of veg- I would have to be rushing in and out washing spoons-I need my soup spoons and if I offered a fish course (I'm talking dinner party here) I would need fish knives and forks as I wouldn't have enough of the ordinary. I'm not sure if I care what posh people do-I don't think they've evolved enough

So the consensus seems to be spoons AND forks and napkins rather than serviettes. That is such a relief.

And of course we have lavatories, not toilets, and drawing rooms or sitting rooms but never lounges.

But what about soup spoons? We eat/drink soup with soup spoons but an upper class aunt always served soup with table spoons (Georgian silver, of course). But we do know about tilting our bowls away from us and eating/drinking soup from the edge of the spoon!

Finally - well, not finally - there's the problem with fish knives and forks. I think this has already been discussed elsewhere but they do have a place and if you've been given a set, or inherited one, then it seems churlish not to use them. Yet they are rather non-U I gather.

Why is eating such a social minefield? And why are we such snobs?

We had pudding forks at school dinners, but the only time I ever saw one used was when when a group of French students were there on an exchange. One of them was using a fork to try to eat runny school custard. Not the ideal implement (or the ideal custard)

Pudding (spoon and fork) and napkin, but I don't care what other people call them so long as I understand.

I never say dessert in real life - I just copied it on here .
But I don't say napkin either, so I am half non-U!

Ariadne agree about pudding and napkin so will stand with you and face the flack!

Yes, it was horrible. I hated it!

I was NOT believing Jilly Cooper, honestly. Just quoting. Though, in some situations, I have seen "just the fork" in action. And the finger pushing.

But the one thing I hate is the word "dessert" instead of pudding, or "serviette" instead of napkin. I am not having a go at anyone, it's just what I have learned over a varied life.

Maybe I should learn from earlier experiences here not to say what I actually think....Ah well.

Posh school Jeni

Well, there's posh for you!

We did!

Yes, I can see the point with tarts and other pastries, but not ordinary puds- I'm not saying forks only for anything!
We never had dessert forks at school dinners tables...

A banana crepe with chocolate sauce required both implements to prevent its sliding off the plate.