Rabrrrrrr's etiquette rant for the evening

So, I ate at a Country Buffet tonight. After the Christmas cooking and stuff, I just wanted some fried chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc. - the stuff I didn't make for the holidays.

And yes, I know, I should not expect great food there (and it wasn't, and that's okay - it was what it was supposed to be, mediocre but perfectly edible midwestern food meant for people who lok at food as something to put in their stomachs, not something to really sit down and enjoy).

And I know I should not expect the greatest clientelle there, either. It's certainly a few steps up from a dive bar, but a couple steps below a Denny's or even a TGIF.

But still, the number of men wearing hats (and not even good, tasteful hats - mostly nascar and feed hats all in the "baseball" style), and the number of people eating with the elbows on the tables, and the number of people who had their chairs pushed back a couple feet from the table so that they lean into their food and their face is as close to the plate as possible, and then surround their food with their arms while they shovel the gloriously piled high all-you-can-eat plates of foodstuffs into their mouths.

It was simply an awful display of table manners all around the place. Sadly, I'd say the best mannered people there were me and the boy's highschool basketball team. No doubt they have a coach that has instilled into them more than "The enemy sucks!" and "Screw other people!"

And I know I shouldn't bitch about a place like the Country Buffet having people with bad manners - it's precisely the kind of place that the ill-mannered find attractive, but the whole lack of etiquette and table manners thing seems to working its way upward into the better establishments as well.

Especially the shit about men wearing hats inside. I'm seeing that freakin' everywhere, and it's almost always those *@*^%%#* baseball=style hats. If they were at least bowlers or something nice it would be one thing.

And while I'm at it, let me put out a general note of disgust at people who eat in restaurants and can't be bothered to take their coats off. Show some respect for the food, please, and take your coat off.

And don't put your ass three feet from the table lean into it, either. You look like an idiot.

And take the *@(^&% hat off.

Well said and I pretty much agree!

If you'd smoked a big fat doobie before heading out to eat, you'd have discovered a number of things:

1. the food was fabulous;

2. the people were really far away;

and

3. you're eating with your face.

solo, dude! Yeah, man. It's like all cold and crisp and sweet in the mouth and fulfilling and it's totally like that rip he did on that album with the guy on fire. Man, that artist was fucked who came up with that shit - a burnin' guy! I bet he was high, too, man! Oh, come on dude - you know he was! You don't come up with shit like that when you're straight, you know? Oh, man, this ice cream is the bomb, like that solo that goes like "Wee weeee wee weeee weeeeeee weeeeeeee weeeeeeeee weeeee weeeeeee weeee." Oh, man, that fuckin' rocks.

Do you hear birds?

I am one of those who has been guilty of eating with my coat on. It has nothing to do with lack of respect for the food. It has to do with establishments that keep their room temperature somewhere near "meat locker." I can't enjoy a meal when I'm freezing. Believe me, I'd prefer to take my coat off, but sometimes it just isn't happening.

Fortunately, this has never been an issue at nicer places.

Don't want people to freeze. Or if there isn't anywhere to put the coat, that also offers one an excuse.

the guys I hang out with pretty much wear their hats everywhere except at church, weddings and funerals. I'm not offended, but I grew up being used to it.

:loveya: :hi: :D

(Second runner-up...DS1...just for the record and all... ;))

And I really was! Thanks!

I can be a bit cranky, can't I? I don't try to be...

:hug: Dolo Amber!

My husband wears hats, both the stupid baseball kind and one rather nice looking fedora kinda thing. No matter how often I mention to him that wearing hats inside is a no-no he gets all huffy and tells me I don't know what I'm talking about. I out and out refused to go into a church with him a few weeks ago for a friends wedding when he refused to take the damn thing off. At this point I'm convinced he does it just to annoy me. But I can't imagine an otherwise intelligent man would ever do such a thing.

I'm not a hat wearer, but this summer I found myself wearing a hat a lot (since I now have a convertible :-) ) and, for the life of me, I simply could not bring myself to wear it even inside a department store. I always took it off and held it whilst I was inside.

And in the winter, when I lived in NYC, my hat always came off as soon as I walked inside any place - whether grocery store, Starbucks, or Del Friscos.

I've always thought it was bad manners to leave your hat on in a restaurant and has always been one of my pet peeves for some reason.

On the other hand, I find men with good manners very sexy!