Silverware is intended to help you eat. It helps you raise food from a bowl or plate in a civilized way and place that substance in your mouth. When it goes beyond the call of duty to, say, help you spin spaghetti or tell you you’re eating too fast, well that’s just not OK.

Here are ten pieces of silverware that need to be told, gently, that at the table it’s better to be seen, not heard.

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Whether they’re retrofitting old homes with eco-modern touches or going net-zero in the sleekest way ever, our readers know that tech and green are a perfect design marriage. Together, they make an unstoppable combo of nature and science that helps great-looking homes look and work better. Here are a few of our favorite power couples from House Tours and House Calls past.

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In Hitchcock’s lush thriller, To Catch a Thief (1955), a cliff-side picnic lunch gets served up with equal measures of innuendo, elegance, and cheek. Have you seen this film? If not, you must.

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Ever since I was a little girl, sipping on Pelican Punch with milk and honey, I’ve been a tea-drinker. I consume plenty of coffee and other hot beverages too, but tea is my comfort drink, and I have quite a stash. What you see above is a fraction of the whole (I’ve recently instituted a strict one-in, one-out policy for my tea collection). What about you? What kind of tea do you drink, or are you an equal opportunist?

Also, we’re going to be writing about tea more frequently this year at The Kitchn — is there anything in particular you’d like to learn or talk about?

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