sipping my soup

 Once, long ago, there was a great debate, via Anne Landers or Dear Abby (not sure which), about which way round the toilet paper roll should be put on the dispenser.  To my knowledge, that debate was never satisfactorily resolved.  Of course over is correct, but recently one of my guests put a new roll on the dispenser in my guest bathroom under, not over.  But I digress.  Recently I was reminded of something I learned years ago during a visit to the college I eventually attended.  According to the charming upperclasswoman who was showing me around campus, the proper way to eat soup is to dip your spoon into the soup and move it away from you, not toward you, to fill it.  I had never heard this before, and was a little surprised, because I thought my mother, who had grown up on the east coast, knew something about etiquette.  But I gave it a try, at least while my guide was watching.  Recently I came across a little poem taught to British children to teach them about eating soup.  It was something about the little spoon ship "sailing away from the shore." I wish I had written it down.  But I served chili to some friends on New Year's Eve, and I'm pretty sure they all dipped their spoons in the soup and brought them toward them.  This evening I was watching a British comedy on PBS and the lady eating soup was sailing her spoon away from her.  So now I think maybe this is just a British thing, like not switching your fork back to your right hand, after you cut your meat.  Maybe I'll try to change my soup eating technique, or maybe I will never eat soup in public again.  I wish someone would tell me which way is correct.