ON PREVIOUS DAYS:
- YESTERDAY:
Henry VIII's 'Ugly Wife' - DAY BEFORE:
The Town Disney Built - DAY BEFORE THAT:
O.J. Simpson's Car Chase - DAY BEFORE BEFORE THAT:
Dante Gets Political
ON THIS DAY
Introducing... The Fork
The fork had only recently received Royal approval in Britain when it was gifted to the Governor of Massachusetts, John Winthrop, on 25th June, 1633.
It took centuries for Americans to feel comfortable with this new way of eating, but in Italy it was already gaining ground, as Englishman Thomas Coryat observed in 1611, noting: “the Italian cannot by any means endure to have his dish touched with the fingers, seeing all men’s fingers are not alike cleane. Herupon I myselft thought good to imitate the Italian fashion by this forked cutting of meate.”
In this episode, Rebecca, Arion and Olly consider how the Victorians conspired to make cutlery culturally exclusionary; review the American method of ‘cut and switch’; and wonder whether the early Fork Sceptics were right to question the wisdom of putting metal in their mouths…
Further Reading:
• ‘Nearly 400 years later, the fork remains at the center of American dining controversy’, Quartz (2018):
•‘The Rise of the Fork’, Slate (2012): http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/design/2012/06/the_history_of_the_fork_when_we_started_using_forks_and_how_their_design_changed_over_time_.html?via=gdpr-consent
•‘The History of the Fork’ by History of the Plate on YouTube (2017):
ON THIS DAY
Introducing... The Fork
The fork had only recently received Royal approval in Britain when it was gifted to the Governor of Massachusetts, John Winthrop, on 25th June, 1633.
It took centuries for Americans to feel comfortable with this new way of eating, but in Italy it was already gaining ground, as Englishman Thomas Coryat observed in 1611, noting: “the Italian cannot by any means endure to have his dish touched with the fingers, seeing all men’s fingers are not alike cleane. Herupon I myselft thought good to imitate the Italian fashion by this forked cutting of meate.”
In this episode, Rebecca, Arion and Olly consider how the Victorians conspired to make cutlery culturally exclusionary; review the American method of ‘cut and switch’; and wonder whether the early Fork Sceptics were right to question the wisdom of putting metal in their mouths…
Further Reading:
• ‘Nearly 400 years later, the fork remains at the center of American dining controversy’, Quartz (2018):
•‘The Rise of the Fork’, Slate (2012): http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/design/2012/06/the_history_of_the_fork_when_we_started_using_forks_and_how_their_design_changed_over_time_.html?via=gdpr-consent
•‘The History of the Fork’ by History of the Plate on YouTube (2017):
ON PREVIOUS DAYS:
- YESTERDAY:
Henry VIII's 'Ugly Wife' - DAY BEFORE:
The Town Disney Built - DAY BEFORE THAT:
O.J. Simpson's Car Chase - DAY BEFORE BEFORE THAT:
Dante Gets Political
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OLLY MANN
Olly Mann made his name with another trivia-wielding podcast, Answer Me This! with Helen Zaltzman – and now presents The Modern Mann, The Week Unwrapped, and Four Thought for BBC Radio Four. He also has an A-Level in History, so Dan Snow beware.
REBECCA MESSINA
Rebecca got a passion for podcasting working at The Week magazine and a passion for trivia appearing on University Challenge in 2011, making The Retrospectors her natural home.
ARION MCNICOLL
Arion started out in satirical news in Australia, then moved to the UK to work for ostensibly serious publications including The Times, CNN, and The Week… before realising that since around 2016 the news has all been satire really.
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