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.
>
> Great movie BTW. Especially the zither.
>
> Steve

We had a fork like that when I was a child. Always took it for granted
that that was how such a thing was supposed to be