Who said that?

October 22, 2006 3:28 PM

My wife remembers reading a story about some famous person (Churchill, Franklin, ?) who, when interviewing a potential employee, took them to dinner. If the prospect salted his food before tasting it, he didn't get the job - presuming that they would rush to judgement without having all the facts. She can't remember who it was attributed to though. Anyone know?
posted by Pressed Rat to Human Relations (13 answers total)

Best answer: Snopes has the scoop. From that article, the "salt test" has been attributed at various times to:

* IBM, monolithic computer company.
* The Ford Motor Company, another monolithic company.
* Thomas Edison, renowned inventor.
* Henry Ford, legendary car maker.
* J.C. Penney, founder of the department store chain that bears his name.
* Admiral Hyman Rickover, father of the nuclear Navy.
* General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander of the Southwest Pacific theater during World War II.
* Howard Hughes, business whiz kid millionaire who later became a recluse.

And probably dozens of others.
posted by IvyMike at 3:32 PM on October 22, 2006

Heh. I was about to say it was Eisenhower, but IvyMike has the real answer.
posted by frogan at 3:33 PM on October 22, 2006

Response by poster: Hah! Metafilter in 4 minutes. Wifey is suitably awed. Thanks Ivy
posted by Pressed Rat at 3:41 PM on October 22, 2006

Reminds me of the (possibly apocryphal) anecdote about Ettore Bugatti, maker of super deluxe automobiles, who had dinner with a prospective buyer one night, and after that refused to sell him a car because "the man's table manners are atrocious."
posted by adamrice at 3:47 PM on October 22, 2006

There is a similar one about switching hands with cutlery.. When using a knife and fork you are forking left handed, when you put down the knife do you switch the fork over, or just keep going?

It is said you can distinguish boorish Americans from civilised commonwealth folk this way. Whatever.. :P
posted by Chuckles at 4:34 PM on October 22, 2006

I have friends who went to the University of Virginia who came away with a number of apocryphal stories in this vein -- all kinds of things you should not do during job interviews, because somebody is going to judge you.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 4:35 PM on October 22, 2006

I heard it was Edison, which apparently matches up with IvyMike's list. Didn't know it was attributed to so many different industrialists.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:51 PM on October 22, 2006

When using a knife and fork you are forking left handed, when you put down the knife do you switch the fork over, or just keep going?

The correct answer being, of course, the secret third option: if you have a fork and a knife, you never just put the knife down and shovel at your food with your fork. Sheesh.
posted by chrismear at 6:40 PM on October 22, 2006 [1 favorite]

Reminds me of the bit in Microserfs where one of the Microsoft employees is convinced that Bill looks down on the campus from on high and watches to see which employees blindly follow the footpaths and which ones work out the fastest route between points, and then rewards the ones who forge new paths.
posted by web-goddess at 7:00 PM on October 22, 2006

Bill looks down on the campus from on high and watches to see which employees blindly follow the footpaths and which ones work out the fastest route between points, and then rewards the ones who forge new paths.

Which reminds me of the story of the landscape designer for some college campus who didn't bother to lay down footpaths or sod until after the first semester, when natural routes had made themselves apparant.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:45 AM on October 23, 2006

Fork: My European partner is fascinated with my awesome American skills with the fork. I often eat entire meals without using a knife.
posted by Goofyy at 6:28 AM on October 23, 2006

I understood the dinner interview with the salt was from Admiral Rickover's interview of candidates for the nuclear program.
posted by KneeDeep at 6:39 AM on October 23, 2006

How amusing! Henry Ford was brought up as the person who did this while I was at lunch with a prospective employer yesterday. He (the potential employer, not Henry) swore he wasn't watching whether I salted my steak before I tasted it...
posted by lhauser at 10:28 PM on October 24, 2006