How to keep a child occupied

Remember these?
Remember the pin that your Mother used to give you to extract the little seeds?
Of course that was years before Health & Safety took over the world.
I'm sure you wouldn't be allowed to give a child a pin and a piece of fruit nowadays without breaking some law.
I can remember pomegranates being absolutely delicious. The seeds were like little red jewels sparkling in the firelight that inevitably accompanied the pomegranate-fest. I would sit there quite happily for what seemed like an age, picking the seeds out individually and then savouring each little nugget.
Now - they're awful tasteless things with horrid seeds that stick in your teeth.