A trivial question but one I've wanted to know the answer to for years!

[Xue Sheng]

You would think, being left-handed, I would do this too, but I don't. I do some times change hand to eat something tricky like peas.


Tez, I don't think the film was the Great Escape because, to the best of my memory, the only person who goes into a cafe or restaurant is James Coburn's character, and he is Australian. Could have been Force Ten From Navarone (that one's got Harrison Ford).

Here's the thing. Prior to going to school I was ambidextrous and to some extent I still am. After starting school and learning to write I was pretty much left handed but in my day that was not what you were suppose to be so they pretty much made me right handed by the time I go to 1st grade. My hand writing as a righty is pretty bad and I have been asked why I am writing like I am left handed but I am now a righty when it comes to a lot of things.

But there is also the possibility that switching utensils would slow me down and I can't have that, I have always been a fast eater.

 

[Blindside]

I really never thought about it much, but I do switch hands a lot. You mean other people don't?!? Weird?

Man, I really need to visit England.

Or you could just head north and visit Canada.

Lamont

 

[MA-Caver]

I think it's The Great Escape, but I'm not certain-motorcycle chase with Steve McQueen sound familiar?

It wasn't the Great Escape... I have that on DVD and can say for certain that it's not the film Tez is referring to. I am at a loss as to the name probably because I've never seen it. Such a scene would've stood out in my memory.

Here's a list of war films set in Europe from the early '60s. Maybe its one of these:
The Guns of Navarone (1961) (setting is the Med.)
Very Important Person (1961) (very enjoyable comedy about British POWs, well worth seeing)
The Longest Day (1962)
Hell Is For Heroes (1962)
The War Lover (1962) (about American bombers crews)
The Great Escape (1963)
The Password is Courage (1963) (the story of Sergeant Major Charles Coward)
The Victors (1963) (Americans in Europe after D-day)
633 Squadron (1963) (occupied Norway)

There's also:
Where Eagles Dare - (1969, Brian G. Hutton, WWII) (Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood)
Battle of Britain - (1969, Guy Hamilton, WWII) (Michael Caine, R. Shaw, Laurence Olivier)
In Harm's Way - (1965, Otto Preminger, WWII) (John Wayne, Kirk Douglas)
The Blue Max - (1966, John Guillermin, WWI) (George Peppard, James Mason)
Battle of the Bulge - (1965, Ken Annakin, WWII) (Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw)
The Train - (1965, John Frankenheimer, WWII) (Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield)
Sink the Bismarck - (1960, Lewis Gilbert,WWII) (Kenneth More, Dana Wynter)
The Bridge at Remagen - (1969, John Guillermin, WWII) (George Segal, Robert Vaughn)
Von Ryan's Express - (1965, Mark Robson, WWII) (Frank Sinatra, Trevor Howard)
633 Squadron - (1964, Walter Grauman, WWII) (Cliff Robertson, Harry Andrews)
The Sand Pebbles - (1966, Robert Wise, China uprising 1926) (Steve McQueen)
Too Late the Hero - (1969, Robert Aldrich, WWII) (Michael Caine, Denholm Elliott)
Operation Crossbow - (1965, Michael Anderson, WWII) (George Peppard, Sophia Loren)
The Naked and the Dead - (1958, Raoul Walsh, WWII) (Aldo Ray, Cliff Robertson) ok ok 1958 but hey close enough... still a great film...
King Rat - (1965, Bryan Forbes, WWII) (George Segal, Denholm Elliott)
Castle Keep - (1969, Sydney Pollack, WWII) (Burt Lancaster, Peter Falk)
Dr. Strangelove - (1964, Stanley Kubrick, Cold War) (Peter Sellers, George C. Scott)
The Secret War of Harry Frigg - (1968, Jack Smight, WWII) (Paul Newman, Sylva Koscina)
How I Won the War - (1967, Richard Lester, WWII) (Michael Crawford, John Lennon)
What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? - (1966, Blake Edwards, WWII) (James Coburn)

Th-that's about it. :uhyeah:
Does any of those ring a bell Tez??

 

[Fiendlover]

When I was a child my father would take me to the pictures (the movies) he liked war films and I always remember one where some Allied prisoners of war escaped, got hold of civvie clothes and went on the run in Germany however the American POW was caught because he was eating in a restraurant/cafe where it became very obvious he was an American from his eating habits!
Ok the question that has been stuck in my head for about 45 years now lol is why do Americans use their knife and fork differently from Europeans? We keep our knives in our right hand, forks in the left hand throughout the meal but Americans cut up their food then swap the fork to the right hand. Is there a specific reason for this, it can't be to keep a weapon hand free unless everyone is lefthanded!
Put me out of my misery please! :duh:

Does anyone actually know the film I mean as well?

lol i take german class and somebody in class asked why EUROPEANS always eat with there knife in there right hand and there fork with there left lol. but i never knew why,we Americans, eat the way we do so im glad this question was answered.

 

[exile]

Or you could just head north and visit Canada.

Lamont

Or our home in Columbus, Ohio. My wife's family is old-stock anglophone Canadian, and she actually eats like that!

She's not amused when I tell her that to me, eating with the left-handed fork, no transfer, is one step up at most from a ravenous pack of starving wolves tearing at the corpse of their prey... (Mark, Irene, I know you won't take offense )

 

[Kreth]

She's not amused when I tell her that to me, eating with the left-handed fork, no transfer, is one step up at most from a ravenous pack of starving wolves tearing at the corpse of their prey... (Mark, Irene, I know you won't take offense )

That's the way I eat, that is when I'm not taking down a deer by biting the jugular. :lol:
I also use chopsticks left-handed. Yabanjin?

 

[Xue Sheng]

I also use chopsticks left-handed.

Now that is something I have to try

Per some Chef form Hong Kong that was asked by some interviewer from the west

Interviewer: "Why would you go to such great lengths in your cooking and not eat with more civilized utensils like a knife, fork and spoon"

Chef: "We use to eat like barbarians but now we are much more civilized"

Thank you and good night

 

[JadecloudAlchemist]

I cut with my right and use fork with my left and I do not switch things around maybe cause I am left handed and learned to cut with my right.:rofl:

Also being left handed I first learned to use chopsticks right handed being taught that way and it took me a year to learn to use them left handed and in the end I can not use them right handed anymore!:rofl:

 

[zDom]

Sometime over the last decade or so I decided switching back and forth is inefficient.

Surely if I can do all my martial art techniques from both sides, I can do something so simple as use a fork or knife with my off-hand, I told myself.

So for easy cutting, I cut with my left, fork with my right. If the cutting is more difficult — say a steak, for example — I will cut with my right, fork with my left while eating the meat.

I will transfer fork back to right hand once I'm not cutting, however, as it still FEELS better to use a fork with my right hand.

 

[JBrainard]

I eat with a steak knife in each hand and do sinawallis while I'm chewing

 

[Ceicei]

ummm...

I cut with my left and hold my fork in the right and don't swap anything around.

But then I can use chopsticks too

I do this too!

 

[punisher73]

I'm left handed, and have always put the fork in my left and and cut the food with my right. I didn't realize until alot later in life that most people switch hands back and forth like that.

I also didn't realize until just now that it is primarily an American thing.

 

[CoryKS]

Irene, which hand do you hold the fork with when you're eating something that doesn't need to be cut? Does it stay in the left?