<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/26/dining/26HOWT.html?ei=5007&en=a27005a6f83778d9&ex=1385182800&partner=USERLAND&pagewanted=all&position=">How to Set the Table, and Why: The Short Course</a>: “Traditionally, of course, a proper table is covered with a cloth. Tablecloths originated in Rome and represented wealth and dignity during the Medieval period. Damascus in Syria produced the best cloths, called damask, like my family heirloom. Centuries ago, several tablecloths were laid one on top of another, each to be removed after a course. This practice is still followed today in some cultures, in North Africa, for example. Then in early 18th century England, very fine wood tables were meant to be shown off, so doilies, named for D’Oyley, a London draper who is said to have invented them, came into use. These in turn became place mats.
“On to the plates. The plate is the flat dinner plate, which evolved from wooden trenchers, which were in turn preceded by slabs of stale bread.
“The plate is then flanked by knife and tablespoon on the right and usually two forks on the left. Utensils are placed to make picking them up and using them efficient and simple. The knife should be turned so the blade edge is on the left, next to the plate, a consideration dating from when knives were razor sharp. The forks, a larger dinner fork and a smaller salad fork, are placed in order of use from the outside in. In France the forks and spoons are usually turned so the tines and bowls face down…
“To the left of the forks, there can be a small bread and butter plate with a butter knife placed across it near the top. Though butter is never served at a formal dinner or banquet and bread is optional, Thanksgiving is different. Aunt Alice may have made pumpkin bread, or Uncle Brent may have brought biscuits or cornbread, so the bread plate is useful.
“For the dessert service these days, a teaspoon with the handle on the right and a dessert or cake fork with the handle on the left are often set horizontally above the dinner plate. The dessert fork and teaspoon can be omitted from the setting and added later, after the main dish has been cleared.
“Now, glassware. Two glasses, a larger one for water and a smaller one for wine, should be positioned above the knife, with the wineglass to the right of the water goblet. Stemmed glassware is a sign of refinement. But until well into the 19th century, no glassware was placed directly on the table. It was lined up on a side table and offered by servants, already filled.
“A napkin, simply folded — and for a nice dinner, cloth, never paper — might go to the left of the forks, but the 1960 edition of Emily Post’s Etiquette insists the napkin belongs on the dinner plate itself. And she also noted that fancy foldings are in bad taste. Today, unless lobster is on the menu, the custom of tying a large napkin around one’s neck is no longer accepted at a formal dinner, as it was in the 18th century. Napkin rings once held napkins that were reused, but are now merely decorative.”
A new government Web site lists food recalls (amongst others)
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11582-2003Nov24.html?referrer=email">New Web Site To List Recalls Of Products (washingtonpost.com)</a>: “Starting today, a new Web site, <a href="http://www.recalls.gov/" title="Recalls.gov">www.recalls.gov</a>, will offer consumers information from six federal agencies about product recalls involving toys, drugs, food, cosmetics, pesticides, cars and boats.
“The new one-stop site is the work of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Coast Guard, and the Agriculture Department.”
Issues Arising From Arbitrary-Element Hover
I do not normally use named anchors, so I have not encountered this problem, even though my style sheet would have made it possible if I did. Just to be safe and for future use, I am changing my style sheet per the following recommendation:
<a href="http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2003/arbitrary-hover/">Issues Arising From Arbitrary-Element Hover</a>: “This brings up the second common problem, which is that named anchors can accept hover styles. Although authors may intend the selector <code>a:hover</code> to apply only to hyperlinks, it will also apply to named anchors, since the selector merely states that any a element which is in a hover state will be styled. In order to avoid this problem, authors should use the combined pseudo-class syntax described by CSS2:
a:link:hover {color: red;}
a:visited:hover {color: maroon;}
Note that, with this syntax, it is possible to styles visited and unvisited links differently when they are hovered. This was not possible with simple <code>a:hover</code>. It does mean, of course, that the selector <code>a:link:hover</code> will only apply to unvisited links, so authors who want the same hover style to apply to both visited and unvisited links should group the two selectors into a single rule.”
Another Update On The Hepatitus Outbreak
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11347-2003Nov24.html">Raw Menace (washingtonpost.com)</a>: “Epidemiologists in Pennsylvania and three other states where recent scallion outbreaks occurred have ruled out restaurant workers as the cause of infection because in each case restaurant workers who got sick appeared to have contracted the virus at the same time as patrons. Officials speculate that the onions may have been contaminated before they were shipped, by workers or their children who defecated in the fields near where the produce was being harvested. Another possibility is that water used to wash the produce was tainted by sewage.”
The New Turkey Carving Illustrated
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38522-2001Oct23?language=printer">washingtonpost.com: Cooking Class: Lesson 10</a>: “Carving a Turkey”
I believe I agree completely!
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56185-2003Nov18.html">The Neo Thanksgiving (washingtonpost.com)</a>: “I believe in tradition. I believe in Thanksgiving. I believe in Thanksgiving tradition. I believe that there should be butter, turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy and pie on the fourth Thursday of every November in the United States of America. I believe that Thanksgiving is a day on which people should gather to share food, friendship and love. I do not believe it is a day on which calories should be counted or guilt should be expressed at having eaten too much food, too many complex carbohydrates or too much saturated fat…
“As to general Thanksgiving decorum, I believe that guests at the table should feel comfortable and welcome and should express any documented dietary needs or preferences in advance, if need be, and that both new cooks and seasoned cooks should be happy to accommodate them. By that some token, if there is something on the table that the guests don’t want to eat, I believe that they, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, should refrain from eating it and not make a big deal out of it.
“I believe we are a nation that eats too much, a dangerous pattern. We eat the wrong stuff and we eat it in enormous portions. And this is a problem of grave concern that should be dealt with the day after Thanksgiving. In the meantime, after the apple pie, I believe we should push away from the table and go for a nice long walk.”
So… Do we need to eat or don’t we?
<a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1517&e=6&u=/afp/india_old_health_offbeat">
Yahoo! News – Doctors baffled as Indian man claims not to have eaten for 68 years: “An Indian man who claims divine inspiration says he has survived 68 years without eating, drinking or relieving himself, baffling doctors who are unable to prove him an imposter.”
Why do I keep a food log?
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11346-2003Nov24.html">Making This Holiday Season a Leaner One (washingtonpost.com)</a>: “Research suggests that two keys to weight maintenance are getting on the scale and tracking food intake and physical activity. ‘Self-monitoring and being accountable is something that we can’t say enough about,’ notes Joan Conway, a researcher at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Human Nutrition Research Center. ‘It’s about managing your choices instead of just allowing the food to manage you. With just a little pre-planning, you can go almost anywhere and have almost anything to eat.’
“It’s that kind of planning and attention to detail that helps thwart holiday weight gain. Just jotting down what you eat — even if you don’t calculate exactly how many calories are included — helps reduce over consumption.
“‘Lots of studies suggest that the very act of recording food is going to help people make better choices about what they eat,’ notes [Jack Yanovski, head of the growth and obesity epidemic unit at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development], author of a 2000 study of holiday eating published in the New England Journal of Medicine. ‘Paying attention to what goes into your mouth helps you make active decisions about eating that you might not otherwise think about, like passing a desk and mindlessly picking up a piece of candy as you go by.’”
Food Log
Breakfast this morning was a bowl of cold cereal and a glass of orange juice.
I am going to start journaling my weight. This probably would have been more interesting [to me] had I done it all along, but now is as good a time to start as ever. When I started I weighed 180 pounds. After a little over three months, I am down to 162 as of this morning after breakfast. That is when I weigh myself — I understand that consistency is important because your weight may vary throughout the day. If I believe that weight, I have lost about a tenth of a pound a day for the last three months. I am not sure I trust that measurement though, since I think I remember weighing 165 yesterday. In fact, I have weighed 165 for several weeks now. It may be that it was not me that was stuck at 165, but rather the old bathroom scale we use. <img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/wink.png" height="18" width="18" alt="I am winking" />
I walked over to the Telecommunications Building to work this morning wearing my backpack. I managed to turn what is normally a one mile walk into a two mile walk. You see, you need an access card to get into the building, and half way over I remembered that I had left mine in my car so I had to walk back to get it. <img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/slant.png" height="18" width="18" alt="I am rolling my eyes" />
<ins datetime="2003-11-25T14:39:00-05:00">After walking from the Telecommunications Building to the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center for a presentation and back to University Support Building 2 — bringing my mileage for the day to around three miles — I just had a <a href="http://www.paydaybar.com/" title="PayDayBar.com > Can't Get Enough Peanuts? Try a PayDay Candy Bar!">PayDay Bar</a> (260 calories, 130 from fat).</ins>
<ins datetime="2003-11-25T18:43:00-05:00">Gretchen made a sautéed onion and pepper pizza for dinner, which we split, with 1½ <a href="http://www.sierra-nevada.com/beers/celebrationale.html" title="Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale">Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale</a>s. <img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/laugh.png" height="18" width="18" alt="I have a big grin" /></ins>
Free to Strut His Stuffing
<img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/pardoned-turkey.jpg" width="341" height="256" alt="Bird in hand: Stars looks pardonably pleased. Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite — AP" />
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11948-2003Nov24.html?referrer=email">Free to Strut His Stuffing (washingtonpost.com)</a>: “Only two turkeys a year get the [presidential pardon and are] therefore saved from ending up on a platter, surrounded by mashed potatoes and a horde of screaming relatives… Turkeys like [this one] have come to the White House every year since 1947 to be pardoned. President Clinton continued the tradition, which perhaps helps to assuage some of the national guilt over the fact that some 50 million turkeys will be slaughtered and eaten this Thanksgiving.”