and what the people who knew Gramma told you about that.
These are two different things.
My sister, who resides within a 50 mile radius of the centere of my family’s historic influence, was at dinner once and the topic of sexism came up, as it does. She, not unnaturally, quoted the mayor of Ottawa as saying that a female must accomplish twice that of a male before being recognized as half as valuable. She also said that the mayor said that to her grandmother. The mayor therupon, at a different table, asked “who’s your grandmother” and a connection was begun.
Some stranger said, well that is nothing…whereupon the thought police would take care of some thinkers.
Let’s see if I’m rational enough at this point to argue my point, which is that a once-weekly family dinner is a binding and proactive option and that families that do not submit to the weekly-dinner model are societally destructive. The response is clear.
raincoaster 
Well, when your family is about 4,000 miles away the once-weekly family dinner thing is not so ‘do-able’. But Nog and I usually have a proper sit-down gorgeous homemade meal every day – at lunch time. In Spain it’s typical to have your main meal at lunchtime around 3pm. Dinner (around 9 or 10pm) tends to be either a light snack at home or a couple of tapas, if you go out.
We often start discussing what to have for lunch sometime mid-morning, thinking about all the possibilities, then about what we really feel like. It gets a bit overwhelming at times, especially just after we’ve been food shopping and there’s almost too much choice.
And although we never watch tv while we’re eating (or at any other time, actually) we do sometimes play scrabble or watch a film on dvd. Our more romantic (and mutually communicative) meals together tend to be when we go out for tapas or dinner – usually once a week. But we do sometimes light the candles and get out the linen napkins at home.
Anyhow, I’m sure it’s quite different for people who have their families closer to them (though I reckon mine are close enough ;) )
Ooh another one I like, do you mind if I rip this one off too? Sorry, I forgot to mention the quiz thingy.
You liked it? I must remember to post drunk more often.
Edited to make more sense now, btw.
az, it sounds like you’ve got your own family, and any meal where you use the real napkins counts.