Many, many, many years ago, according to "Don't: A Manual of Mistakes and Improprieties," a guest at a dinner should always leave a least a bite, mouthful, or small portion of food on his plate to avoid the insinuation of greediness. The thought was that one's plate should not be sent away completely cleansed by one's greedy appetite.

For as long as I can remember, however, the thought has been that one should clean his plate so that the person who prepared the meal would have the impression that everything was cooked deliciously and was perfect.

Furthermore, as a child I heard my mother say, "Clean your plate if you expect to have desert." As a parent I have said, "Clean your plate if you expect to have desert." Forever I have lived under the impression that we should clean our plates!

According to Alfred Ayres' "The Mentor," cleaning one's plate is the thing to do. That book says, "Do not hesitate to take the last piece on a dish or the last glass of wine in a decanter simply because it is the last. To do so is to indirectly express the fear that you would exhaust the supply."

What do you think? Should a guest clean his plate or leave a small portion there?

The information about these proprieties, or improprieties, comes from Jeffrey Kacirk's "Forgotten English" calendar.