Please tell me.

-- Atara (atara@raex.com), October 29, 2000

Answers

To answer this question, we need to consult the Merriam-Webster Dictionary which, thanks to the wonders of the internet, is now online, (I spend almost as much time there as I do at Library Of Congress) and will tell you everything you will ever need to know about anything.

According to Merriam Webster, nappy means foaming. It also means diaper. It also means kinky, and rimless shallow open serving dish. Put them all together, and we can get a general idea that a fruit nappy is this rabid, diaper-wearing serving dish with a fetish for throwing fruit at your dinner guests. Miss Manners wouldn't approve, I'm sure, but Martha Stewart says it virtually guarantees dinnertime conversation will be much more animated.

You can buy a dinner nappy on eBay, if you're so inclined. This one has a thousand eyes, but appears to be missing it's diaper. Still, $11.95 is a fair price to pay for an all-seeing, thousand-eyed fruit nappy. You'll note the description reads, "These elegant glass nappies could be used for fruit, dessert or sauce dishes." And then, they add cryptically, "They could be used for many things." For example, you could one as a cheap home security system by filling it with ball bearings and train it to dump them everywhere if a burglar breaks into your home. Worn upside-down, a fruit nappy makes a stylish hat. Hundreds of other uses! No home should be without one.

-:)

-- OH NO! Martha Stewart's Gone Berserk! (xydexx@my-deja.com), October 29, 2000.

I'm wondering if "fruit nappy" is some sort of weird eastern Canadian thing. I'm Canadian, and the only person I know of who uses the term is from Ontario - I'm a prairie girl myself. Anyway, it's a dessert bowl, smaller than a soup bowl, the kind of thing you would graciously serve berries and cream in after a splendid repast. As for the other bowls - oatmeal, rimmed, and all that - you really need to see them and choose what appeals to you most, whether it's something wide and shallow or smaller but deeper. You only need so many bowls, so just pick what you like. Your fiance lives in Canada so could he not go to the Bay and get a catalogue with pictures or something? You could end up with a very odd china collection otherwise. Happy wishlisting!

-- anonymously answered, November 01, 2000

Ah. Um. I thought those bowls were called sherbert cups.
...but thanks, guys. =)
(Ya learn something new every day...)

-- Atara (atara1@yahoo.com), November 03, 2000.