“Should you tell someone you're dining with that they have something stuck in their
teeth?” asked Lorna Somers, McMaster's director of development and etiquette expert
extraordinaire.

“Absolutely,” she said, when no consensus emerged from her audience. “But why?”

The answer was obvious to the youngster sitting at the back of the room: So that you
don't have to be disgusted anymore, of course.

Whether it's at a wedding, a business meeting or a formal dinner party, almost
everyone will need to use proper dinner etiquette at some point in their lives – even
kids, who were the main audience for Tuesday night's Meals and Manners Etiquette
Dinner, hosted by Somers.

Part of the McMaster Alumni Association's series of family-oriented events, the session
detailed the dos and don'ts of dinner etiquette, from which glass is yours to what to do
with food that simply cannot be eaten – or worse, is still moving.

“When you travel as much as I do you experience a lot of different cultures and lots of
different food,” said Somers, who also serves as vice-president of the McMaster
University Foundation. “But you have to remain polite and dignified, no matter the
situation in front of you.”

Fortunately, the night's cuisine, spaghetti and meatballs, was hardly a worry (aside
from the splattering), though the amount of work involved in eating to Somers'
standards caused some concern for Cooper Rourke, a student at St. Thomas Elementary
School.

“My arms started to hurt from twirling so much spaghetti,” he said.

Brother Tyler said that while there was a lot to know about proper etiquette, one thing
had definitely sunk in.

“Keep your elbows off the table.”

Mom will be proud.