REPLY: 2:292/854 00000309
 MSGID: 1:2905/3 458e2159
 CHRS: IBMPC 2
Replying to a message of Ward Dossche to Roger Nelson:

 WD> Roger,

 >> I grabbed a huge banana off a nearby plant a couple of days ago,
 >> thinking it was ripe because it was yellowish-brown, with more yellow
 >> than brown, but couldn't even peel it.  I found out later on it wasn't
 >> ripe yet. Seems that process was stunted temporarily by the recent
 >> cold fronts we had come through here the past couple of weeks.

 WD> Us westerners in general know only one kind of banana ... the
 WD> yellow-one. While there are over 40 different kinds in different
 WD> colours and sizes.

I'm sure that most USAians are blissfully unaware that the *seedless* bananas
sold in the stores here are a genetic aberration.  "Normal"
bananas have seeds
in them, if memory serves they're about the size, shape and color of watermelon
seeds.  Most USAians probably also don't know that a banana plant is *not* a
tree
(it has no trunk; what looks like a tree trunk is actually a mass of tightly
wrapped
leaves, there's no wood in it and it has no structural strength at all - one
can pull
a banana plant over fairly easily, and a person can cut one down with an
ordinary
pen-knife).

--- FleetStreet 1.19+