Q. At a luncheon recently, I indulged myself by taking
a generous chunk of expensive cheese from the cheese board. Before I could eat it, my neighbour, turning towards me to make a point, sprayed my cheese with spittle, rendering it inedible. No one noticed but me, but everyone noticed that I didn't eat the cheese. Now I have earned myself a reputation for indecisiveness and pernickety eating habits. How would you have resolved this, Mary?
A.A., Penzance
A. What you should have done was to contrive to knock your plate, with the cheese on it, clumsily off the table with your elbow. You could then have picked it up off the floor insisting, it will be absolutely fine, I'll just carefully pare off the outside with all the germs on it and then eat the inside.' You would then have passed the decision on to your hostess as to whether she insisted you take a new piece. If she did not, you could still have put your own anxieties to rest.
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