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From: donn@hp-dcd.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: How to eat dinner in England - (nf)
Message-ID: <2932@hp-pcd.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 16-Dec-83 03:38:13 EST
Article-I.D.: hp-pcd.2932
Posted: Fri Dec 16 03:38:13 1983
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#R:utcsstat:-152000:hp-dcd:17300004:000:560
hp-dcd!donn    Dec 12 11:17:00 1983

The version I heard of the reason for putting knives down was that knives
were hard to come by on the frontier, and that often there was only one
per family.  I vaguely remember this referred to the time around the revolution
when Kentucky was the frontier.

It would then be polite (if a bit unsanitary) to put down the knife (and switch
hands) if you were stopping someone else from eating.

(I have this mental image of a family sitting around the table with Jim Bowie's
knife stuck in the tabletop when no-one was using it!)

Donn Terry
hplabs!hp-dcd!donn