Patterns on plates and cups? It is impossible for me to distinguish them. It is like trying to distinguish between patterns of camoflage clothing in the woods (at dusk).
My simple answer: plain white plates (squarish and round, to allow for attractive presentation of various foods that may or may not be geometrically prepared), capuccino cups/saucers, salad bowls, serving platters, etc. Hey, it works for the Italians, Germans, and French, it'll work for you, too.
Let's be fair and equal; everyone should always puts the seat AND the lid down.
Well, duh! How else can I keep the cats from drinking out of the toilet?
Why wash dishes before putting them in the dishwasher ? (One of those steps is 100% waste of hot water.)
That's why I buy the really good dishwasher detergent that doesn't require a pre-rinse; it just dissolves the caked-on food right off the dishes. Or you could do what my sister (and eventually my parents) did: get a dishwasher that's specifically designed to wash dishes without requiring the pre-rinse.
Plates should never be shaped like a shallow bowl.
Now, that depends on whether you're going for versatility or just showing off...
Why is it wrong to drink wine out of a plastic cup ?
For the same reason that it is wrong to drink beer out of a plastic cup. Thou shalt not desecrate the elixir that we brewers (or winemakers) have spent so many hours crafting to be savored and carefully quaffed by the appreciative drinkers among us. Of course, this assumes we're talking about real wine (or beer) and not the wine-like (or beer-like) substances that most folks in America are used to. Hint: if there's any sort of twist-off cap involved, it's not real wine (or beer). If it comes in a plastic bottle, aluminum can, or a box it's not real, either. It's a surrogate intended only to get you smashed, in which case you should by all means not waste real glass receptacles of the proper shape and capacity on those substances and pound them down from your silly little plastic cup.
Real wine comes in glass bottles, with a real cork (okay, possibly those funny synthetic corks that never want to come out in one piece) that requires the use of an honest-to-goodness corkscrew to extract. In similar fashion, real beer comes in glass bottles with caps that require use of an honest-to-goodness bottle opener (church key, or a Bic lighter in a pinch) to remove. The only acceptable metal container for real beer is a keg.Cheers!
Jim
