Eating Etiquette, Part II

This is a continuation of a four part series from the same Social Manual for Seminarians by Rev. Thomas Case and Rev. Leo Gainor, O.P, that I have quoted from previously. The previous post can be found here: Part I.

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Table Manners

II. The Racket-eer

He chews with his mouth open, making no attempt to muffle the noise (or conceal the sight) of his cement-mixer mastication. He clanks silver on silver, or silver on plate.

He stirs his coffee fiendishly, like a witch standing over a boiling cauldron, and every revolution of the spoon sets up a racket. When he puts his knife and fork down, you wonder that the force does not smash the plate. He winds up by scraping his plate with his fork. And if he's the "helpful" as well as the noisy type, his final sin against the eardrums is to stack his dishes, crashingly.

He slurps his soup. Suction is superfluous - just put the side of the spoon in your mouth and sip quietly.

He drums on the table, or cracks his knuckles, or chews on the ice from his water glass, or otherwise sounds off between noisy bites.

He pushes away from the table and dinner's end, with both hands shoving against the table edge and the chair screeching across the floor. Instead you should reach down and lift the chair back as you rise slightly.