On 2014-08-27 5:25 PM, sf wrote:

>> ??? I have run into a lot of Americans in my travels and many of them
>> are very talkative. AAMOF, I just got back from my annual family camp
>> vacation and there were a number of Americans there, all of whom were
>> quite chatty. The camp serves food family style at tables for 6 and
>> they only set up enough tables to seat the number of guests. Despite my
>> usual aversion to being seated with strangers, the camp setting is a
>> common interest for everyone who attends.
>>
>>
> How many of the RFCers who are objecting so vociferously to the
> concept of the "big" table would actually go to a camp filled with
> total strangers and sit with them to eat at a table for 6? I don't
> think many of them would do it. The ability to carry on any type of a
> normal conversation with someone at the other end of a "big table" is
> impossible. In reality, the big table concept is more than one table
> for 6 pushed together because you can only talk in a normal tone of
> voice to the person across from you and the people on each side of
> that person + you and the people on each side of you. 3+3=6. See?
> Not so scary if you stop and think about it reasonably.
>

No one said that you had to talk to anyone at the end of the table or
anyone two seats or further from you. I would not be talking past the
person next to me unless he/she was involved in the conversation.

I don't mind it in the camp setting, but I would prefer not to do it in
a restaurant. It is bad enough being seated at a table for two with
other tables close beside it. I was once in a restaurant like that and
someone at the next table knocked over their wine bottle and it spilled
on our table. He very graciously ordered a bottle of wine for us, so I
am glad I did not over react to the spill. Still... it should not have
happened. People should not be seated that close together. A few years
back I ate in a local restaurant that opened up where my favourite
restaurant had closed (due to owner's health problem. The new owner
added extra tables and instead of having people seated at opposite sides
of the table they were seated at adjacent sides, allowing him to slip
more tables in. I didn't like that, or his absurd prices for so so food
and I never went back.