'Downton Abbey' Dinner Manners: We Report From a Dakota County Library Etiquette Class
What's a newcomer like Martha Levinson (Shirley MacLaine) to do when faced with a battery of strange forks during a Downton Abbey dinner? To find out, I went to a special etiquette class.
Editor's note: This story was originally published on June 25, 2012. We're re-running it in honor of the season kick-off of Downton Abbey, Season Three. PBS has announced that renowned actress Shirley MacLaine would join the Emmy-nominated cast of "Downton Abbey" in Season 3 as upstart American matriarch Martha Levinson, a character who will almost certainly seem scandalously uncouth to the Dowager Countess of Grantham. So, what's an unschooled Yank to do when confronted with an elaborate table setting? Here are a few tips, from a Downton-style etiquette class recently held at the Burnhaven Library. • Don't talk to the help—and that precludes a please or thank you. It may seem impossibly rude to us in 2012, but during the Victorian and …
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