'Napkin in your lap'

October 07, 2011
  • "Tiffany's Table Manners for Teenagers"
"Tiffany's Table Manners for Teenagers" (Bill Hogan/ Chicago Tribune)

John Hoving's dining antics as a 5-year-old prompted his grandfather to write a little book back in 1961. The grandfather was the legendary chairman of Tiffany & Co., Walter Hoving. And the book was "Tiffany's Table Manners for Teenagers."

"He came to lunch and saw a friend of mine and myself at the table stuffing sandwiches into our little faces, so he decided to write a book on manners for children," John Hoving recalled. "I was not a teenager at the time, but he thought a book for teens sounded best."

The slim book, with its signature Tiffany blue jacket and drawings by famed fashion illustrator Joe Eula, has been reissued in a 50th-anniversary edition. Hoving, vice president of media for Olmos Productions, contributed a new introduction.

"He once said to me, 'Johnny, it takes a person just as much effort to have bad manners as it does to have good manners, so why don't you take the time to learn some good ones?'" Hoving writes. "So I listened, and my manners must have improved, or I'm sure he would have written a sequel to this for adults."

Hoving is thinking of writing such a book. He bemoans the widespread loss of basic good manners.

"You don't want to go into a business meeting and stick your napkin under your collar or have your elbows sticking out or do things that might be construed as sloppy or not presentable," he said in a phone interview. "Don't answer your phone. At the dinner table, put the napkin in your lap. Sit up straight. Keep your elbows off the table."

Bill Daley, Tribune Newspapers