In the gilded world of late 19th-century America, flatware sets could stretch to 30 types of forks, with various ones for shrimp, sardines, lobster, scallops, and oysters. "Americans became fork crazy. It played to social-status building," says Sarah Coffin, a curator at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City.

Gentle reader, should you encounter multiple forks at table, fear not. The rule is: Start with the one farthest to the left, and work in from there.