Dinner Parties

[andyfox]

Every time we're invited to a dinner party, I'm reminded of an entry from the Journal of the great French painter Eugene Delacroix:

"26 January 1847

"Worked on the Arab Horsemen. Dined with Thiers. I never know what to say to the men I meet at his house. From time to time they turn round and talk art to me when they observe how profoundly bored I am with conversation about politics, the Chamber, etc.

"How chilly and tiresome is this modern fashion for dinner parties! The flunkeys bear the brunt of the whole business and do everything but put the food into one's mouth. Dinner is the last thing to be considered, it is quickly polished off like some disagreeable duty. Nothing cordial or good-natured about it. The fragile glasses--an idiotic refinement! I cannot touch my glass without making it shake and spilling half the contents over the cloth. I get away as quickly as I can."

[benfranklin]

[ QUOTE ]


" Dinner is the last thing to be considered, it is quickly polished off like some disagreeable duty. Nothing cordial or good-natured about it. The fragile glasses--an idiotic refinement! I cannot touch my glass without making it shake and spilling half the contents over the cloth. I get away as quickly as I can."

[/ QUOTE ]

I suspect that you are socializing with an unsavoy crowd. At the dinner parties I frequent, there is a pretty lively scramble to get one's fair share of the pizza, and there is nothing fragile about a good sturdy beer mug. You can drain that sucker and slam it down, followed by a good healthy belch, without a single worry about breakage.

The political discourse is also generally lively, usually initiated with a provocative comment like: "Did you hear what that forking idiot (insert candidate's name) said today?"