DEAR ABBY: My wife has been criticizing my table manners ever since our wedding. When we're having dinner, if we're having meatloaf, broccoli and mashed potatoes, I eat all of my meatloaf and then all of my broccoli before starting on the mashed potatoes.
My wife claims it is proper etiquette to rotate one bite of each different food rather than consume all of any one of them before moving on to the next. I have never heard of this rule and neither has anyone else I have asked.
Am I violating a rule of etiquette, or is this something else my wife has "cooked up"? -- RUMINATING IN RIO RANCHO, N.M.
DEAR RUMINATING: I have never heard of such a rule either, nor is it mentioned in "Emily Post's Etiquette (16th Edition)." Your wife may have cooked it up, but that doesn't mean you have to swallow it.