"Reid©" > wrote in message
...
> Following up to Peter H.M. Brooks
>
> >> I have always considered 8.00 for 8.30 to mean aperitifs served at
8.00,
> >> dinner served at 8.30.
> >> Is this not the case?
> >>
> >Yes, but that is time for a small sherry only, and then only if it is a
tiny
> >dinner party, eight people or fewer - any more and it takes longer even
for
> >sherry.
>
> In the real world outside ng's for most people 8 isn't a "tiny"
> dinner party.
>
You aren't suggesting that I'm living in an unreal world are you?
>
> With the dry sherry in a cooler, place bottles and glasses on a
> table and tell the guests to help themselves, there is usually
> someone willing to do the job amongst the guests anyway. It gets
> them taking to one another and helps to destroy any potential
> atmosphere of formality.
>
You can do that, but there's often some girlie who wants a medium sherry, so
you have to provide it and label it so that no normal person has to gag on
the dreadful stuff.


--
Men don't pay you to sleep with them. They pay you to go home - Philip Roth
'The Human Stain' pg 236