food etiquette and a pet peeve

food etiquette comment first. i have discovered that many of the people on egullet take photos of their food. i feel that the breach in etiquette outweighs the benefit of taking a photo of your food. after all, won't you remember it if it was memorable? ditto about taking notes. i guess i just feel that you're there to eat, not document. but, to each his own.

and the pet peeve: having spent so many years studying french, i can no longer stand it when people mispronounce words that are french. this is not an attack on specific people, but rather more a reflection on the american society's failure to make an effort to pronounce things correctly. i find that if i want to pronounce something correctly - ie, "au bon pain," "sur la table," "au gratin," etc - i cannot do so because people just won't understand me. and then i end up reverting to the american pronounciation, at which point the funny look i got from pronouncing something correctly transfers seamlessly to a look of instant comprehension.