Etiquette Boss: Table manners checklist

Thanksgiving dinner is just around the corner, so this is a perfect time to check your table manners.

• If you do not know a guest at the dining table, it is courteous to introduce yourself.
• Conversation should be shared, meaning, speak to the person to the left and the right of your seat.
• Do not commence eating until the host does so. Grace before meals might be the custom in that household, and you do not want to begin your meal before grace is said. The host/hostess signals the end of the meal by returning the napkin to the table.
• Wait until the table is served to commence eating; you do not want to appear ravenous. In addition, when the table starts and ends a meal at approximately the same time, dishes can be cleared and the next course served without undue delay. At buffet dinners, you may commence eating after half of the table returns from the line.
• Your fingers are not meant to be a knife substitute. Do not use your fingers to push food unto your fork.
• After the toddler stage, the fork is never held in the fist. Use the forefinger and thumb, with the handle being hidden inside your palm.
• If you are served salad with a salad fork (it has a cutting edge to one side), use it instead of the dinner knife to cut large leafy salads.
• Forks and spoons should not be pointed directly toward your mouth, but raised at a slight angle, so that the food is removed from the front of the fork, yet at a slight angle.
• Use your fork to sop up spaghetti sauce if you so choose. Do not use your fingers to “wipe” the plate clean of the sauce.
• At a meal when help is hired to serve at the table, you do not pass dishes around unless specifically asked to do so. Pass dishes around the table (if they are in front of you) only at an informal meal or when serving help is unavailable.

Anti Aging Tips: European Spa Treatment

Soak a few round cotton pads or gauze pads in a solution of ½ teaspoon Epsom salts dissolved in two tablespoons of water. Stir in one tablespoon glycerin and one teaspoon 10 percent menthol solution.

Create a strap band from a strip of three-inch wide elastic bandage. Place under your chin and tie at the top of your head. Tuck the saturated pads between the elastic band and your chin. Leave on for several hours. This is a spa treatment for lifting the chin and jaw line.

Phillipa Morrish is the president of Etiquette Training International.