
Forking Etiquette - fogus
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/forking_etiquette/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FihdT+%28The+Dilbert+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
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zbanks
And I thought this was about github...

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w1ntermute
Even after seeing the domain name, I was hoping beyind hope that it would
be...

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sigzero
I must have missed that meeting. Why?

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sjs
Github is home to a whole lot of hardcore forking action.

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mashmac2
That's not Github you're thinking of...

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iwwr
You must be twiddling your own bits then :)

Try pair programming with an opposite-endian char.

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dkarl
For the last time, fellow Americans, it is not proper etiquette just because
English people do it that way. If it's called the Continental method, it's
probably the result of the English blindly copying the French. Isn't it silly
of us to insecurely copy the manners of a country that insecurely copies the
manners of another country?

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nailer
It's designed as a mechanism to spot people of lower class, and some would
argue it still works. Go dining with a seriously monied American and see what
they do.

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jrockway
But wait, if you _are_ of the lower class, then you can use your fork however
you want without any social repercussions? Excellent.

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nailer
No.

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tlrobinson
"napkinforkspoon" isn't a very efficient word for such an efficient tool.
Clearly it should be "sporkin".

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edw519
_Was I supposed to open doors using nothing but my elbows?_

Yes, actually.

My mother called me with directions to her new apartment...

"Go into the lobby and hit '614' with your elbow. I'll buzz you in."

"Go into the elevator and hit '6' with your elbow."

"Get off the elevator, turn right, and go down the hall to Apartment 614. Hit
the doorbell with your elbow. I'll let you in."

"Why with my elbow?" I asked.

She replied, "You're not coming empty handed, are you?"

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srean
In winter that would be a resounding yes. For all things such as metallic
elevator buttons, metallic doors......

Hate getting spiked by static. I don't know why I get an unfair dose of those
as compared to others.

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pavel_lishin
I usually just slap the offending surface hard enough for the shock to not
matter.

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srean
My friends explain that my humor is dry and unfunny.

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macrael
Etiquette is such a funny thing. I know I sometimes notice people who aren't
following protocol, usually out of ignorance of the rules, and it can really
bug me. Why should it matter to me if someone is holding their fork in a fist,
rather than between two fingers? But it seems ugly to me. Obviously it is the
vey definition of uncouth, but it surprises me that it seems ugly. As if all
of us following the rules do something pretty by doing so.

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burgerbrain
I generally go out of my way to _not_ follow "proper" etiquette while dining,
but this is because I think that "etiquette" is a piss-poor reason for me to
be uncomfortable while dining as a left-handed individual.

Screw old english ladies' definitions of proper, I _am_ going to rearrange my
utensils and plates.

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ugh
I dare anybody to tell me that it’s bad manners to hold the knife in my left
hand. (I’m left-handed.)

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epochwolf
I had no clue what he was talking about with tines down until he mentioned the
american method being tines up. As for cutting stuff with a fork: I've
unconsciously avoided doing that in nicer restaurants but I've always done it
at home when I don't have a knife handy.

I think I would pick up on other people around me using forks differently just
because I like to watch what everyone else is doing.

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varunsrin
Is it bad that when I saw this I thought it was gonna be about git.

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doki_pen
I thought it would be about forking processes.

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snarkyturtle
Rice is the hardest thing to eat with a fork. Especially the non-sticky kind.
Foods like rice and other loose foods should be exempt from etiquettes in
favor of the most efficient method. Otherwise, as noted in the article, it'll
lead to either an excruciatingly slow and/or messy meal, which is all the more
noticeable than the way you hold your fork.

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mootothemax
Strong disagree. With a bit of practise one can learn to balance a decent
amount of rice on the back of one's fork. Green peas, alas, escape even the
most practised forking, regardless of which method - balancing on the back or
stab-them-to-death - one chooses.

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snarkyturtle
That's the thing though. Why even practice balancing when you don't need to
balance it using the contour of the fork to your benefit? It's like having a
car only to put it in neutral and push it the rest of the way. Sure, you can
do it on level ground and it's plain easy to ride it downhill. But if you're
pushing it uphill you shouldn't think "hey, I'll just keep pushing this until
I become strong enough to do this without effort", you should think "let's
just use an essential function of the damn car".

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notahacker
it could be worse, you could be using _chopsticks_ to fit in...

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chronomex
Sticky rice is sticky for a _reason_.

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viraptor
As much, as I don't mind "proper etiquette" in public places, at home there's
only one thing I use: <http://www.lightmyfireusa.com/spork.html> It fits in
the hand perfectly and I can finally cut stuff with the side of the fork (who
needs a knife anyways?). I really recommend that one.

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Sniffnoy
Oh, here I assumed this was going to be stating something like we need fork
the whole notion of etiquette and make our own version. To an extent, we
already have.

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autarch
All of this stuff is completely hilarious.

It's incredibly rare for me to use a knife in a meal (although I did when I
went out earlier this evening). I'm vegan, and I mostly eat non-American food.

About half my meals use just a spoon and chopsticks. Many of my other meals
are things like Indian food (just a fork, or just your hands).

I hold my fork in my right hand, because I'm right handed. I use the contour
of my fork to pick up my food. If I'm using a fork, I'm often eating something
saucy (like an Indian curry). Attempting to eat this tines down would be a
messy disaster.

I really don't get these ridiculous etiquette rules. As Scott Adams point out,
eating like this is inefficient, and generally annoying. I eat to enjoy
myself, not to impress others with my memory of ridiculous minutia.

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johngalt
If your cutting don't send the fork all the way through the meat to hold it
against the plate. The tines will drag across the plate as you cut and you'll
get that high pitched screeching. Just thinking about that sound is
irritating. Take your time and let the knife do the work.

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sachitgupta
Rules are just guidelines that are meant to be broken. How else can change
happen?

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shawndumas
There are two differing styles[1].

\----

[1]:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fypq2qhRZnI&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fypq2qhRZnI&feature=related)

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rflrob
I've found that, for a great many foods, the continental method is more
efficient. Assuming you still use the knife with the right hand (and if you're
right handed, that should be what gives you the most control over the cutting
surface), then it's a bit of a waste of time to constantly switch your fork
into your right hand for plate-to-mouth delivery. With the continental style,
you never have to change your grip (until you switch to eating the rice and
other rollables).

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mikeklaas
Surely it would be " _spnork_ "?

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Luyt
Correct way of using cutlery:

1\. Concentrate the food on the center of the plate.

2\. Using knife and fork and with a scissoring movement, reduce the food to
small chunks.

3\. Using the fork, mix and stir well.

4\. Use the spoon for moving the resulting mash into your mouth with maximum
efficiency.

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artpop
I was truly shocked the first time I saw an American eat a meal and I'm
Australian so that's saying a lot.

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code_duck
Similarly, I was informed a few years ago that I hold my fork like an utter
heathen. I tried to solve this, but still have no idea what the proper
technique is or how mine differs.

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flexd
Am i the only one holding the fork in my right hand? I thought that was
normal.

