Dear Vi,

Please help settle a dispute. I say the French invented round dinner knives while my friend says the idea came from Russia. Do you know the story?

Michelle Brady, Hyde Park, NY

Dear Michelle,

Actually, knives, ancient eating utensils, had sharpened points until the seventeenth century, when the renowned Cardinal Richelieu changed all that. Legend has it that Richelieu, and eater so finicky and fastidious as to make Felix Unger look like a slob, objected to a house guest who used the point of his knife as a toothpick. The next day, Richelieu ordered his steward to round the ends of all the cardinal's knives. Richelieu's style spread throughout France and most of the Western world. So, you are right.