DEAR MISS MANNERS: I was always taught that one’s bread plate is placed to the left. Whenever I am with a large group at a table at a wedding (or another function), at least one person always takes the bread plate to their right. Their neighbors then follow suit, eventually meeting the side of the table using the left plate, leaving someone without one.

I usually just quietly go without bread if I’m the stranded guest, and I don’t really get upset by it. But this seems like such a basic element of table manners that I can’t believe so many people don’t know it.

Can you please weigh in, just for public education, assuming I’m right?

GENTLE READER: You are right. The good news is that most dinner tables are not flush to the wall. If diners are evenly spaced around the edges, then once eve

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