Please feel free to share your worst experience with your's, or someone else's, table etiquette.

Okay, so I went to dinner with a group of friends, and after dinner was over and we were sipping coffee and talking about our lives, one of them grabbed their mirror from their purse, picked up their fork and commenced to picking their teeth right there at the table... with the fork. I was speechless... No, a better word is flabbergasted. Didn't their mom tell them, "Stop picking your teeth at the table". I mean, who does that?

Blowing your nose at the table with the cloth dinner napkin is pretty bad.

I also heard of a case where a guy died right at the table - his head just dropped down into his food. Pretty rude, isn't it?!

All three are bad, but I can't handle the nose blowing. That is so nasty.

Blowing your nose at the table? A family member used to do this regularly -- especially at the end, as if to say 'Dinner is over! If you haven't eaten everything on your plate, forget it.' Or 'Because I can! Because you can't stop me. Because you don't have the guts to say it's not OK.'

This could be a family tradition, a custom honored always in the observance, never in the breach, or like 'We've been doing this for hundreds of years. It's what we do; its an expression who we are.'

Bad etiquette as a weapon -- a means of enforcing unwritten rules. (Can you dig it?)

-- Old news from Redneck City.

Well, if these would be instances of someone adhering to a family tradition, I'd hope they'd save it strictly for personal family gatherings.

I believe there was a serious, but possibly unconscious intention behind this, but I think it's also funny. My reaction was eventually to make a habit of eating alone in my room, a practice which continues to this day.

briareus

Well, I agree, all three are really bad.
I voted for loudly belching and not apologizing.
My sil used to do this but she did it on purpose!!! She thought it was funny to see who could belch the loudest. It was followed by extremely loud laughter.
She wasn't brought up to behave this way and neither was her husband (my dh's db)but he went along with it even though you could see in his eyes that he was uncomfortable.
I don't know if they still do this. These people, thankfully, are not a part of our lives anymore.

In certain countries, it is still considered a compliment to the cook to belch at the table after the meal.

My pet peeve was the former bf who would fork a forkful of pasta into his mouth, but twirl the fork in his mouth to wind the dangling strands. The boyfriend before that was, in his own words, a "real Italian" and he would use the method of twirling the fork against a spoon while down on the plate. No matter what, I could not get bf#2 to utilize bf#1's technique.

Right belching is thought of as appropriate in many cultures. So it's interesting that we find it inappropriate.

I have to admit confusion on the nose-blowing issue. If your nose is running, do they actually expect you to get up and go to the bathroom every time you have to wipe it?

Well, belching is usually only a good thing in Eastern societies. But in Western ones (where the utensils are fork, knife and spoon) it's a safe bet that a nice big burp at the end of dinner would not be appreciated. But if you're ever in China, please feel free to give your best belch, making yourself rival to Booger on Revenge of the Nerds. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

And, you are expected to get up each time you have to blow your nose. The reason being the germ factor, e.g., don't blow your germs on my food. Also, when you blow your nose you run the risk of getting the germs on your hands, then on mine when I have to ask you to pass something. So if you blew your nose at the table then you'd still need to get up to wash your hands in the bathroom, so why not just do it all together.

If your nose is running, then I think it'd be best if you opt not to dine that day or take a really good decongestant so you don't have to get up as often. But you can always explain to your dinner guest that you're sick and see if they don't have a problem with it. But still I recommend just getting up. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Also for a bit of clarification: It's fine to wipe your nose, it's the blowing that you shouldn't do.

Dragonfly, I am I understanding you correctly. "a guy died right at the table...Pretty rude, isn't it?!" Are you saying that the man just dropped dead and all life functions ceased? How is dying rude? Sometimes people die suddenly and unexpectedly. Maybe he had heart attack and ignored they signs or something. I don't know about you but I sure as heck don't know when I am going to die.

Kat, I believe the "pretty rude, isn't it?" was meant to be a joke...