No, I've never, ever heard of this as a piece of etiquette. I suppose I would intrinsically do this anyway, because the wine is an expensive part of the meal so I would accord the payer the respect of letting them choose the wine. Vice versa as well - the times I have paid for a meal, the other guest lets me take the lead when it comes to the wine.

If I was splitting the bill the wine choice would be a mutual decision. I think an expense-account lunch falls into a different realm and probably has its own etiquette!

Here in New Zealand, if someone were to send an invitation like that, for dinner at a restaurant, the assumption would always be that the guests pay. There would be huge delight and probably protestations if the host said they were going to pay for everyone.

This is not an age or generational thing, this is the way it is in this country, so it's a matter of culture not a matter of being a rude host or a bad guest. Actually, not only would the guests expect to pay for their own meals, they would also chip in so that the birthday girl (in this case) did not have to pay for her dinner.

Since my cast iron pans constantly sit on my stovetop, they are the pans that I regularly use for frying my bacon and eggs. The yolk of the egg only breaks if I don't let the egg firm up on the bottom for long enough before flipping it, but the same would happen if I were using a non-stick pan.

My bacon tends to stick more than my eggs. I hardly eat streaky bacon (as picture by the OP) because it's not very common here and is expensive and not as nice as shoulder or middle bacon. Therefore, my bacon doesn't render as much fat in the pan, so it often sticks. I tend to cook it in the Airfryer anyway.

Why not freeze some homemade soups and stews for her to microwave at work? Freeze them in serving sizes and pack some crackers or a bread roll to go with them.

One of my emergency lunches I keep at work is shelf-stable Indian meals like dal, palak paneer, aloo methi, paneer masala, dal fry etc. One brand is MTR but there are a few different brands. They're in pouches inside a cardboard box and have no artificial ingredients and are delicious. If I'm organised I take some frozen naan or flatbread or some cooked rice to eat with them. Here in New Zealand they're available in supermarkets and Indian shops. I'm sure they'd be widely available in the US.

I'm in the same situation and I just have an insulated lunch bag with an ice pack and bring whatever I want for lunch. The bag keeps it perfectly chilled. It's not a large bag but it is rectangular with a zip-around flap lid so it fits quite a bit in it so I can also bring stuff for my morning and afternoon tea as well. It also has pockets on the outside for things that don't need chilling. It's great because everything fits and I'm not having to juggle multiple bags. A soft sided chilly bag or even a little chilly bin would work well too.

Homemade hamburgers are great to take for lunch. Pack the patty in the bun wrapped up with clingfilm or greaseproof paper. Put the lettuce, gherkins, and other cold fillings in a container. Microwave the bun with patty for about 30 seconds on high, then add your fillings.

Homemade hearty soup is a great, cheap, healthy lunch. If you're worried about it spilling just freeze it the night before or make a whole lot and freeze it in containers. Take it to work frozen and it'll act as an ice pack and won't spill.

One thing I always keep at work is a supply of shelf-stable meals and accompaniments like heat-and-eat rice. I pick the healthiest ones I can find. My favourites are the MTR brand of Indian meals as they're very good quality, cheap as chips, and really tasty. They come in pouches so don't take up much room. They do have very high amounts of sodium so I don't eat them too often. It's good to have these on hand for when I can't be bothered preparing anything from home.

When I first started going out with my ex-husband I had no idea how picky he was about food. From memory I think he did mention some of the foods he didn't like but I think because I was such a greedy guts I couldn't imagine anyone who didn't love ALL food!
We were both at university and still lived at home and for most of his childhood/teens his father would cook him separate meals from the rest of the family. At the stage we started dating the only foods he ate regularly were sausages and toast. Not knowing any of this I didn't treat him any differently or pander to his pickiness (I don't mean that in a horrible way, I mean I didn't refer to it or comment on it or try and force new tastes on him). I just ate whatever I wanted and if the only thing he ordered whenever we went out for dinner was a quattro stagione pizza, then that was no skin off my nose. Since we were poor students we didn't eat out very much so I don't think it really bothered me that the only restaurants we ever went to were Italian. He started coming to my place for dinner and my parents wouldn't make a big deal of it if there was something he wouldn't eat. He didn't make a big deal of it either, he'd just eat what he wanted and refuse (in a polite way) what he didn't. My mum is Chinese Indonesian and a really good cook of Indonesian and Dutch food (soto, spring rolls, beef rendang, gado-gado, nasi goreng, oliebollen etc) and my New Zealand Nana taught her good, basic New Zealand 1970s cooking (pork bones and watercress, Sunday roast, smoked fish pie, cottage pie, trifle, pavlova, brain fritters, corned beef, pig trotters, spag bol etc) so he definitely got exposed to a huge variety of foods through hanging out with me. Gradually (it actually only took about a year) he completely lost his fussiness and all through our married life his parents constantly marvelled at how he went from being ridiculously picky to being a complete foodie.

I think the key is constant exposure to a variety of foods and eating with people who truly love food of all kinds and have no snob element to them when they are eating. These are the people who love trying new foods, who know the difference between prosciutto and parma ham, but will also eat Marmite with banana on toast for breakfast and have two desserts when they go out for dinner if that's what they want. These are the people who won't make you feel bad if you order the most boring thing or the weirdest thing on the menu.

When I say 'constant exposure' I don't mean you should order or buy food that you hate. I mean don't refuse invitations to eat out at those places that serve the foods you don't like; for example, if you don't like Thai food just order something off the menu that you will eat, even if it's just a bowl of plain rice. If people comment on it just say that it's what you feel like eating. If you go to someone's place for dinner and you can't bring yourself to eat anything that they are serving, just have a glass of wine, tell them you ate too much at lunchtime, enjoy the company and eat your dinner when you get home. If some impulsive whim takes you and there is something there that you think you could have a go at, just do it! If you can't bring yourself to eat it when it arrives then don't beat yourself up about it. Just push it around the plate a bit and don't eat it.

If you are bringing your own lunch to work, eat with your colleagues and take an interest in what they are eating. You don't have to like it or comment on it, just expose yourself to it.

I think it's also important for you not to make it a 'thing' and feel like you have to explain yourself. Don't give them a complete and detailed history of your food phobias because it will just reinforce it for you.

I wasn't referring solely to supplements but also a holistic approach to illness such as attending to a patient's diet and exercise levels and lifestyle. There are no medical ethics that I know of that would constrain a doctor from addressing those issues but what I'm saying is that those in general practice don't have the time or resources to cover those things in detail with their patients.

I work in veterinary medicine and am naturally skeptical by nature so I am not a supporter of 'humbug and quackery'. However, I do believe in clinical trials and I believe that nutriceuticals can play a part in helping with illness and maintaining health. Many of my practice's clients are medical professionals and they are more than accepting of this as well.
With the proliferation of prescription pet foods and clinically-tested animal nutriceuticals and supplements there are many chronic conditions we help keep control of without the need for continuous drugs.

I don't think that medical professionals "prefer to remain ignorant", it's more likely that they are constrained by the edicts of the health system in which they work in that they don't have the time or resources to stray beyond traditional medicine.

I also reckon that compliance is a very big issue. It's hard enough for doctors to ensure that patients are taking medication correctly but at least people are more likely to take a pill than to eat more healthily, reduce stress and exercise daily.

Sorry, can't help you with many suggestions for sweets because I don't have a sweet tooth but in terms of commercial snacks we don't have Fritos, corn nuts or goldfish crackers. We don't have Chez Mix and we don't have pretzels with a huge variety of flavourings.

We have a snack that is similar to Cheetos but it only comes in a cheese flavour so you could send other flavours of Cheetos.

S'mores are starting to get a bit trendy here but we don't have graham crackers so you could send those with a recipe for s'mores.

It's completely safe to find beards, it's just annoying because part of what you pay for in a restaurant is for them to remove the beards before cooking (something I don't bother with at home). It's odd to find barnacles attached to the inside of a mussel shell. If you find loose barnacles it's not that bad, just annoying that the restaurant has scraped the barnacles off the shell but they've gotten caught up inside the mussel.

Not sure what you mean by your last comment ..."pretty disguised...". Do you mean you think the restaurant tried to disguise the bearded mussels?

It sounds delicious but it's the kind of thing I'd throw together for lunch from bits and pieces sitting in my fridge. It's a tad boring.
At a potluck I'd go for the dishes that were unusual or things I wouldn't regularly make or eat myself or things that I considered to be a treat or party food.

They don't have to be expensive or complicated (your example of popcorn is a case in point).

I also find that I have a repertoire of things that I take to potlucks that are always a hit. My standard is fresh spring rolls made with rice wrappers because they're gluten-free and easy to make but seem really exotic.

I'm from a country that has a $14.75 minimum adult wage and tipping is not expected and it's a glorious thing. I used to be a server and even though I never expected a tip, customers would usually round the bill up and would often tip if they felt I deserved it. This was definitely an incentive for me to give good service. I have also worked as a server in Canada and although my natural friendliness and strong work ethic got me tips, it wasn't much of an incentive because I knew I was going to get tipped regardless. Also, it was annoying because some of my colleagues who couldn't give a hoot about their work and whose tables I sometimes had to help out with also got tipped so it was hardly a merit-based system.

BTW here in New Zealand we also have subsidised health care, unemployment benefit and sickness benefit, compulsory paid sick leave, paid annual leave and maternity leave amongst other social welfare schemes. It was only this year that I learned that the US doesn't have paid sick leave or annual leave as a federal policy and that really shocked me. How do people cope if they need time off work? Also, what do people do if they need medical treatment and can't afford health insurance?