Those endless “elbows off the table” admonishments may have seemed like a drag in childhood, but they were actually setting ...

GENTLE READER: Setting the table in full would be Miss Manners’ choice, to avoid forcing your friend to respond to others exclaiming, “You don’t have a plate.” But she wonders why ...

as etiquette required. Adopting the new table manners was hardly an option for the poor, who were the vast majority of the European population. In 1702, the French traveler Jouvin de Rochefort ...