Sunday 5 November 2006

Learning About the Manners of the Victorians

If you’d like to find out how well you understand the nuances of an earlier era—specifically the Victorian time, check out The Victorian Period.

This site is an interactive one set up as a game. We are presented with various scenarios and asked to see if we know the answers to various questions.

Here’s the explanation from the site:

Are you a ‘civilized’ person, suited to the Victorian period?

To find out, select the role of a man or woman by clicking on one of the two portraits over the fireplace.

Then use the game board on the table to move from one situation to another.

You can visit five different places. In each, you will have to choose the appropriate type of clothing to wear, or determine which is the best way to react.

You win or lose points depending on your answers.

Although I was able to pick an appropriate ballgown, I didn’t know that men should not escort their wives in to dinner when the family is entertaining–that would make the meal seem too much like a family gathering.

This is a fun way to learn about a period that, in superficial matters at least, was so different from our own.

Via Weblog V2.

Posted by Amy as Etiquette, History at 4:16 AM EST

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Friday 6 October 2006

Brushing Up on Etiquette

Periodically you’ll see articles appear that lament the decline of civilization as we know it—specifically, the lack of manners.

Here’s one such article: Alaina G. Levine’s An Etiquette Lesson.

She recounts the story of a professional with whom she shared a table in a cafeteria one lunchtime and who horrified her by his table manners. She feels strongly that practising basic etiquette is simply a matter of courtesy to your tablemates, and as a result gives a few tips for people who may not be aware that they’re distressing those they sit with.

Here’s one of her hints: don’t get your fingers full of grease and then wipe them on your pants.

Via In The Middle.

Posted by Amy as Etiquette at 4:07 AM EDT