I know you were just sitting on the edges of your seats waiting to find out what those odd objects were that I pulled out, polished, and put back away, were and what they were used for.
Woody in Ohio came up with the answers to both, closely followed by Old Lurker who was right about one. Over at FaceBook Simonetta showed up in third place.


Back in the days before it became Disneyland Harrod’s was a very classy store and sold many unusual and interesting things (sort of the way Neiman-Marcus use to be). And this was particularly true at Christmas in their Food Halls. One Christmas I was in London shopping – as I did in those days – and came across their Baby Stilton. Just the thing for a Stilton lover who could not afford nor had the need for the full 10lb wheel. So a tradition was begun. The next year just before Christmas the ever thoughtful Uncle Pervy*, presented me with this Stilton Cheese scoop on my Birthday. Sadly the traditions vanished when Harrod’s was sold to some type who turned it into an amusement park and they ceased to be providers of these delicious rounds of blue cheese goodness. That and I stopped going to London to do Christmas shopping because it was too damned expensive.
*It should be mentioned that Uncle Pervy’s doesn’t remember this kind gift at all.


It is suggested that sardines seldom graced the breakfast buffet in the homes of the quality except perhaps in the staff kitchen. They did however appear on the morning tables of good solid upper-middle class homes as a staple to be replaced with finnan haddie only on high days and holidays. And because it was served there had to be a serving utensil for it: the sardine fork. The tines were blunted so as not to pierce the delicate flesh. This would have been part of a set including a knife that was smaller in size than the standard fish knives shown yesterday.
The word for May 22nd is:
Sardine /särˈdēn/: [1. noun 2. verb]
1. A young pilchard or other young or small herring-like fish.
2. To pack in closely together
Late Middle English: from French, or from Latin sardina, from sarda, from Greek, probably from Sardō ‘Sardinia’.