Steve Pope wrote:
> Blinky the Shark > wrote:
>
>> This is a screen capture from a film I'm watching -- "The Third Man", a
>> 1949 noir set in Austria right after WWII. A bird is being carved. What
>> is the rod that my arrow is pointing to, that sticks perpendicularly out
>> of the fork. I've not seen this before. But, of course, I do live under
>> the sea (not far from an octopus's garden).
>
>> http://blinkynet.net/stuff/fork.jpg
>
> Looks to me like a hilt to prevent the fork from going in too far,
> when you shove it into a greasy bird. But I've also never seen
> this before.
>

Not quite. My late mother-in-law had a bone-handled carving set with a
fork that had that rod. It is a "rest" to prevent the fork tines from
touching the tableclolth and getting it dirty if it slid off the
platter. On MIL's fork the rod swiveled down so it wouldn't be in the
way when you were carving.

gloria p