[Avodah] Berachot in the Course of a Meal

[cantorwolberg at cox.net]

R' Toby wrote: ...Unless you are still eating bread, in which case the  fruit /is/ 
part of the meal and doesn't need a separate bracha.

That is a perfect answer except that we are letting the tail wag the dog.
The fact that we take bread purposely to eat with the fruit is an artificial construct.
Who, under normal conditions in our society, would purposely eat bread with dessert?
It reminds me of a very humorous family story. I had a cousin who was a little girl of
about 5. While she was eating a meal, she picked her nose. My uncle, her father, 
gently told her that it isn't proper etiquette (he used simpler terminology) to pick her 
nose and that she should use a napkin. She then took a napkin, poked her finger 
through the napkin and then, through the hole in the napkin, picked her nose. This
was a family joke for years but there's a lesson to be learned.