So I shouldn’t eat around anyone because they might be hungry? I’m not stopping you from eating, or getting food before your class… That makes no sense to me. You just changed “You shouldn’t impose your food onto me” into “I’m imposing my hunger onto you”
Read cricetus post right above yours. Not eating in front of people is one of those points of civility we are starting to lose. One of the reasons its rude to eat in front of others (other than over meals or other events where food is provided for all) is that some may be hungry. Since there isn’t an hors d’oeuvres tray in class, its not a place where everyone eats.
So i guess i shouldn’t eat in public at all, in case anyone i happen to run across might be hungry too?
I guess i’ll forego those weekend trips to the park, where i like to lie on the grass with a book and a sandwich. After all, there could be other people who hadn’t thought to bring sandwiches, and they might become jealous or offended at the sight of my delectable morsel.
And forget taking a snack on the train, because there could be other people who haven’t had the foresight to bring their own food, and might therefore be angered at my display of selfishness.
Absolutely correct. Thank you.
Change “in public” to “in close proximity to others”, and you’ve got it right. Eating in the park, okay. Eating on the train, not cool. (Not that that stops many people.)
I guess we should tell Amtrak to save some money by ditching the buffet car, then?
Seriously, i don’t quite understand this completely irrational hostility to eating in front of other people. If we were somehow depriving those folks of the ability to bring or purchase food of their own, then i might agree with you, but in all the cases i’ve described everyone has equal opportunity to bring food. The fact that they choose not to do so is not my problem.
You know damn well what I meant. And it’s not just a matter of whether the people around you are hungry or not. Munching away, oblivious to your surroundings, just concentrating on filling the ol’ belly, is what a dog does, not a socialized person.
Seriously, I don’t quite understand this completely self-centered attitude in all areas of life. “Me me me, I want, I want, everyone else can pound sand.” Whatever happened to manners? And by that I mean the basics of manners: not salad forks and engraved stationery, but consideration for others, and discretion.
Yes, i did know what you meant. You meant that people shouldn’t eat in their seats on a train. And i’m telling you that the presence of a buffet car, often with no seats of its own, suggests that eating in one’s seat on a train is considered by most people to be perfectly acceptable behaviour. And it has nothing at all to do with being “obllivious” of one’s surroundings. It is possible, you know, to eat with making a scene or grossing people out.
I agree that if you can’t eat in such a way, then it might be best to refrain until you’re in private.
Self-centered?
I’m the one saying that i have no problems with other people eating in front of me, because i understand that they might be hungry and that i have no way of knowing when their next opportunity to eat might be. I would consider it pretty self-centered of someone to deny me food when i’m hungry just to satisfy some outdated notion of propriety.
I teach a class from 6 - 9 PM. Students need to be able to eat, many of them are coming right from work. My rule is: don’t be disruptive. That is, don’t bring things that will have an intense smell (garlic pizza is out) and don’t bring things that will make lots of noise to distract your neighbors (celery sticks are not being polite) and don’t bring things that will gross out anyone (live fish for fresh sushi, say.)
So butchering a hog and roasting it over an open flame in class is out then? 
Oh, I have. If anyone’s acting like they have a sense of entitlement, it’s those who claim that people eating around them will make them hungry, or distracted, or because it offends THEIR sense of etiquette, even if those eating are doing so discreetly and not breaking out a super-size value meal. :dubious:
Quite honestly, the only time I would whine is if a professor had a problem with a bottle of water, when it’s not a lab or forbidden by building rules. Some of those classrooms used to get awfully hot and stuffy, and if I didn’t have something to drink, it was easy to get parched.
If college is to prepare you for the working world, what the hell are you going to do when you’re in an office setting, and the person in the next cube is eating her lunch at her desk because she’s busy and can’t get way. Are you going to say, “The smell of your food makes me sick/hungry! I don’t want to watch you eat! You’re so rude!”
High school, it can be argued, is different, because we were NEVER allowed to have food, unless it was a morning study hall (in the cafeteria, and you could buy breakfast), or a party (we used to have fiestas in Spanish once a month), or the teacher brought in a treat. (some of our teachers would even buy us breakfast occassionally). Gum chewing was allowed at my school, though.
Its her cube, therefore, it has the sembalance of a private space. We pretend an office cube is private for all sorts of activities. Sitting next to someone in a lecture hall is not a private space. Nor is a train car, or a bus.
I eat at my cube all the time. I don’t bring lunch into a meeting with me unless we are being served lunch in the meeting. i.e. don’t eat in front of others.
I can’t find the exact article right now, but I remember reading a Miss Manners letter where she says that when you’re sitting next to a person and eating something while they’re not, you should at least ask their pardon. (I think this was on a train or an airplane or something of that sort.) IIRC, she didn’t say you should never ever do this - it was more of something you should try to avoid if possible.
I’d say this policy sounds the most reasonable, in class or otherwise:
I don’t mind people eating in public places - if one is hungry, one must eat - but when people eat sushi on hot summer days in crowded buses (common in Korea), the smell literally makes me nauseous. If you must eat in such a place, eat something less offensive to other people’s senses, and save the sushi for when you get home.
Some girl was eating chips in class today. I asked her to stop. She didn’t. :smack:
She even had quiet food to eat. That’s all I ask. Eat the quiet food.
In the dining car, everyone’s eating. That’s what it’s for. The other cars are not for eating. People shouldn’t.
Which is what I’m saying.
No one’s denying you your food. But you should think of others in both situations. Furthermore, there are people who happily chow down in front of others not because it’s their one opportunity to have their one meal of the day, but simply because they feel like it. And a lot of times, that’s what it looks like, whatever the case actually is.
See HazelNutCoffee’s Miss Manner’s reference below. Acknowledging that you’re not the only person in the world goes a long way.
As i made quite clear, many Amtrak trains have a car where food and drink are sold, but no actual Dining Car with seats especially for eating. Precisely where should you eat the food that you buy in such a place?
So what if they feel like it? Exactly what is it about other people eating that offends you so much? If you’re hungry and want food, then it’s your fault that you didn’t bring any. If you’re not hungry, and don’t want food, then why do you care?
I did indeed see that reference, which said:
I should ask people’s pardon to eat on a plane? Is Miss Manners (or HazelNutCoffee) on crack or something? Airlines have served food for years and, even with cost-cutting, some of them still do. Not only that, but even in cases where they don’t serve food, a cross-country non-stop flight is about 5 hours (plus whatever time it takes to check in, board the plane, etc.), a length of time during which many people prefer not to go without some sort of sustenance.
I’m really amazed by this thread, because up until this moment, in all my 36 years, i have never heard anyone so much as suggest that eating on a train or a plane, or in proximity to someone else in a public place, might be rude. If this is indeed a type of civility that society has lost, then i submit that it is not a recent development.
To investigate this issue further, i’ve decided, rather than continuing this semi-hijack, to start a thread on the subject.
Most of my classes allow eating unless they’re labs of some kind.
I never take advantage of it, unless I’m jonesing for some M&M’s or something.
I would, however, die if we weren’t allowed to have drinks. Diet Coke is my lifeblood.
My company, like many others, has rules against eating at your desk. It used to be acceptable until people went against common sense and would snack on chips all day or would bring their garlic pizza.
I am a University Prof and do not mind students eating. I stop to take a swig of water now and then, and cannot imagine how them eating or drinking interferes with the learning process. Beside,s I believe it is impossible to simultaneously sit upright, eat and sleep, so I know they are awake while eating…
You obviously haven’t encountered some of the students I’ve had.