filed in Foodstuff
Table for Six (+ One)
I have no one to blame but myself. No one put a gun to my head, and insisted I invite six people to the house on dinner this Saturday, when not one of them is an intimate friend, and enough are vegetarians that I’m obligated to cook a meatless meal (not my strong suit). What I’m really wrestling with is the seating arrangement at my rectangular table, because you see, the six are in fact three married couples, and then of course, there’s me. I’m open to suggestions.
Image: Still Life Polaroid by Andy Warhol
Discussion
2 comments for “Table for Six (+ One)”
Leave a Reply
About this Site
FIRST PERSON SINGULAR is a guide to surviving, thriving and sometimes just getting through a single day. Created by Wendy Braitman (more…)
Follow First Person Singular
Greatest Hits
© 2010 First Person Singular. 
Wendy–I’ve run into this problem before. Just seat yourself nearest to the kitchen if necessary and let them figure out where to sit. My dinner parties aren’t overly formal. Maybe yours is. But you are talking about 7 total people, not worth worrying about who is sitting where.
Don’t seat the couples together. I thought I’d read it before and I found Miss Manners commenting on the subject in the Washington Post:
“It is not only at state dinners, but at any properly run dinner party that couples are seated apart from each other. This heads off the irresistible temptation to break into the telling of family stories with remarks like “No, dear, that was the second time we went there, not the first.” When Miss Manners is told of couples protesting that they can’t bear to sit apart even for the length of a meal, she does not take it as evidence of marital devotion. On the contrary, it sounds mighty like distrust. If they have no social interests or skills, they can always stay home.”
I went through an obsessional period with Miss Manners in early college. She has a good wit about her. Of course, when she refers to state dinners she means at the White House.