The things one learns with the Riddled time machine!

Crikey! Cutlery has certainly evolved no end since Ye Daies of Yore. Mainly it is smaller. Perhaps we have come to take the safety of meals for granted. What a contrast with the Renaissance, when people  took no chances when dealing with Eggs Benedict, or "Y^e wiley-est opponent y^e trencherman will mete" as Vegetius Renatus would have it.

The implements of fine dining were varied and specialised, to maximise the possibilities for social embarrassment from choosing the wrong one, e.g. a pho pas with the soup course. Here Vegetius shows an apprentice how to approach the humble broad bean. I think the fork doubled up as a musical instrument, hence the tuning pegs.

Inevitably, the Creative Anachronism crowd have revived the period cutlery when serving a Renaissance banquet. That's how we know that this is the right way to eat radicchio. They were not clear on the concept of "salad dressing" back then.

In the interests of domestic harmony and non-earhole-clipping I will not mention names, but someone thought it would be a classy idea to try this at lunch. Suffice to say that things are not going well and the baked-potato course is taking longer than we expected. Here I am calling my colleague Another Esq. Kiwi's attention to the fact that tigris is back at Riddled Manor waiting for dessert and will not be well-pleased with the delay, but he pays no heed to my remonstrations, any more than he paid the first time around when they were just monstrations.