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Peter H.M. Brooks
 
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Default Pukka mealtimes


"mUs1Ka" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Peter H.M. Brooks" > wrote in message
> ...
>> >

> > However the issue isn't the speed of drinking. It is the exponential
> > increase in the time conversations take as you increase the number of
> > people. It takes much longer to serve, chat to, and move through to the
> > dining room, ten people, than it does six - much, much longer.
> >
> > Try it some day.
> >

> Already have, not a problem. Conversations are in small groups. In my
> experience, the exponential effect you described just doesn't take place.
> Conversations continue en route to the dining room and thereafter. The
> secret is to invite the right people.
>

Oh, yes, inviting the right people is just the ticket - however, inviting
the same people all the time isn't. So you have to take calculated risks.

If the conversation is in small groups then, unless you are entertaining
fifteen or more people (which I advise against), you have failed. The trick
is to have one group conversation that may, from time to time, divide into
small sub-converstions, but, like a variation on a theme in music, rejoins
the main theme. Otherwise you end up inviting some people and never enjoying
the conversation with them - unless you go in for the horrible '60s cocktail
party convention of 'circulating' what a bore.


--
Middle age is when you're sitting at home on a Saturday night and the
telephone rings and you hope that it isn't for you - 'It takes all sorts'
Milton Shulman