On Nov 19, 7:41 pm, j...@jibbering.com (Jim Ley) wrote:
> On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 10:46:29 -0800 (PST), me
>
> wrote:
> > They were easy to
> >make and also were useful for a diet heavily using stews and
> >soups. The result is that Americans were far more likely to
> >"hold" meat down with a spoon while cutting it with a knife,
> >then set down the knive and use the spoon to eat it with.
> >Once commerce could support a greater variety of utensiles,
> >the fork came into use, but generally replaced the spoon.
>
> If the people were eating soup - why did they replace their spoon with
> a fork?
Bit of grammatical imprecision. The fork came into use and
generally replaced the spoon for certain functions which were ill
suited for a spoon. (Strangely, the europeans continue to use
a fork for items which are potentially more easily handled with
a spoon. I've watched them consume peas and other small
items with forks by mashing them against the tines with a knife.
I guess once you've got it in your hand, there's a tendency to
try to use it for everything). |