Miss Manners: Friend’s salad fork place-setting is confusing when both courses come at once

DEAR MISS MANNERS: How do you set the table when the salad is served at the same time as the rest of the meal?

I went to a friend’s house and she put the salad fork to the left of the regular fork. We used two forks during the meal: one for salad and one for the rest of the food.

Was this correct, or is a regular fork used for both the salad and the main course if served at the same time?

GENTLE READER: Please do not encourage the libel that etiquette is a conspiracy to humiliate innocent people by providing confusing forks. One fork to a course, Miss Manners assures you.

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DEAR MISS MANNERS: How do you gently decline Christmas invitations from a friend when the people they invite are all couples and the women don’t really like you? We are all seniors.

GENTLE READER: Why don’t