So Cool!!!!!

Yesterday afternoon, I spoke to Emily Dixon, a volunteer at Kiva. WOW!!!!! Kiva is developing a curriculum for high school students, and they want some of my ideas. Yeah!! I don't know if they'll use any of them, but if I can help in any way, I will be over the moon. So, I'm off to do that, then we McCabes will be at the beach for about two weeks. So, I may not post for a while. Sorry!!! (Yippee!!! Kiva!!! Yeah!!!)

More Top Tens

Top 10 Calorie Consumers

1. USA 3,744.1
2. Portugal 3,740.9
3. Greece 3,721.1
4. Austria 3,673.3
5. Italy 3,670.6
6. Israel 3,666.1
7. Ireland 3,656.4
8. France 3,653.9
9. Canada 3,589.3
10. Malta 3,586.9

World Average 2,804.4

This, again, comes from Russell Ash's The Top 10 of Everything 2007. He added this comment, one of very few commentaries posted in the book:

"The Calorie requirement of the average man is 2,700 and of a woman 2,500. Inactive people need less, while those engaged in heavy labor require more. The countries in the top 10, as well as many others, are consuming over 30 percent more than they need -- hence the rise of obesity and related medical problems. However, the Calorie consumption of over 10 of the poorest African nations falls below 2,000, with Eritrea's average of 1,512.8 standing at just 40 percent of the figure for the USA."

More to follow...

Scary Business

This next series of posts is inspired by what I saw in the stands at the Mets game.

We'll start with this series of Top 10 lists found in The Top 10 of Everything 2007 by Russell Ash:

Top 10 Countries for Global Sales of Fast Food

1. USA 148,612,900,000
2. Japan 13,875,100,000
3. Canada 12,709,900,000
4. UK 12,062,400,000
5. China 9,765,000,000
6. South Korea 9,249,100,000
7. Germany 7,367,900,000
8. Australia 5,685,300,000
9. Brazil 4,967,300,000
10. India 4,914,700,000

Top 10 Fast Food Companies for Global Sales

1. McDonalds $45,933,000,000
2. Yum! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut) 24,418,000,000
3. Burger King 11,100,000,000
4. Wendy's International 10,200,000,000
5. Doctor's Associates (Subway) 6,523,000,000
6. Darden Restaurants 4,655,000,000
7. Domino's Pizza 4,193,000,000
8. Brinker International 3,807,000,000
9. Applebee's International 3,593,000,000
10. Starbucks 3,450,000,000

My Mistake

Small World.

Dan Koeppel, the author of Banana; The Fate of the Fruit That Shaped the World contacted me to say, "I'm not sketchy! Really!"

It seems I made a mistake in last post about Bananas. Koeppel's book was published before Chapman's book, and the two apparently cover different ground. As I've said before, Koeppel's book looks great, and his website is delicious. Check it out.

Let's go Mets!!!

I've only been to Shea once this year, but what a day to go!! Holy cow! What a great game!!!

IT WAS AWESOME.

It may have been the best game ever. One to one through most of the game, complete pitcher's duel, Ryan Howard struck out twice, Aaron Heilman NOT losing the game for Perez, Reyes stealing, Delgado getting a hit in the bottom of the 8th, Billy Wagner closing it out with just a little drama, perfect weather, no drunk fans, a thousand kids in identical t-shirts from their day camps, quick game, BOTH of my kids scoring the game through 9 innings!!!!! WOW.

Oh, and I forgot... The Mets and the Phillies are vying for first place in the division! Bliss. Pure bliss. Great fielding, great pitching, perfect clutch hitting. What a day.

Bananas

Dan Koeppel may have written a great book about bananas, but he's a little late. Earlier in the year, Peter Chapman wrote "Bananas; How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World." (Koeppel seems to have swiped Chapman's title, and that makes Koeppel look a bit sketchy, but it may not have been his decision. Publishers sometimes determine the titles of books.)

I LOVE THIS BOOK. It's phenomenal. It tells the history of the United Fruit Company, and, trust me, it's not pretty. There's a ton of intrigue -- the coup in Guatemala, nasty business in Honduras, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, right-wing Colombian death squads -- and so much fun. The writing is brilliant and clear and you will want to drop everything to continue reading. (My children have learned how to cook dinner for themselves...just kidding.)

The one down side is that Chapman is so brilliant that he assumes that his readers know a great deal about American history. I do, so that's not a problem, but most Americans don't. If John Foster Dulles doesn't immediately ring a bell, you may miss a great deal of the import of this work. Read it anyway. You'll learn something.

Bored?

Then, check this out: Gigapan

"Why Didn't We Think of That?"

Today's New York Times has a great article about Kung Fu Panda, the animated movie 'starring' Jack Black. (Have you seen that? I liked it more than I thought I would. I really enjoyed the cognitive dissonance created by hearing Dustin Hoffman in the role of an animated Kung Fu master. He's come so far since The Graduate.)

Apparently, people in China were trying to boycott the movie since the American movie industry had co-opted and commercialized the panda, a Chinese national symbol.

The boycott failed. The movie is a hit.

In light of that success, people in China are now wondering why the Americans made a panda movie before the Chinese did. The lesson they are drawing from the movie is that "a movie like 'Kung Fu Panda' could have been produced only in an atmosphere of cultural and artistic freedom that China doesn't enjoy." If the government doesn't like your work, it doesn't get made. In addition, the government gives extremely specific instructions on what should be produced and how it should look.

Ugh.

For the millionth time, I will tell you... Be extremely thankful that you live here. Even our worst critics prefer to stay.

Whoops.

Apparently, we could be doing a much better job taking care of ourselves. The American Human Development report ranks the United States as the 12th wealthiest country in the world, but we only rank 42nd (!!!) in the world for life expectancy, despite spending more on health care per person than any other country.

The good news is that our life expectancy has increased four times since 1960, but the bad news is that we could be living a lot longer. The report cited obesity and the lack of health insurance for 47 million Americans as the "most significant factors in premature death." If we had the infant mortality rate of Sweden (figures Sweden would be in first-place), 20,000 fewer infants would die every year.

The report also tracked the differences between regions in the United States, and, sadly, Mississippi ranked at the bottom of the list of states. The people in the worst districts in the United States are 30 years behind the living standards achieved by people in the wealthiest regions. The good news is that the best region in the United States is the Northeast. We have more money, more education, and longer life-expectancy than people in any other region. (Whew!! At least, there's a silver lining!)

Why not go to both?

The new Batman movie is out today, so, after you see it, why not follow it up with a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan? They have a special exhibit on superheroes, paying close attention to the (er) fashion (?) associated with them.

After you stroll through that exhibit, have lunch on the roof among the Jeff Koons sculptures,and then check out the rooms dedicated to "Krishna: Mythology and Worship." But, you better hurry, the Krishna exhibit closes on July 28th.

There's also a special exhibit (open until August 10th) on Pop Art, featuring works by Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann, Joe Brainard, Jim Dine, Richard Lindner, and Wayne Thiebaud.

Taj Mahal and the Skatalites are playing a free concert at Central Park Summerstage on the 27th. The Met in the morning, the Park all afternoon, stopping at the many different ice cream stands which abound in the park... Sounds like the perfect day, doesn't it? (Watch, it'll rain!)

National Aquatics Center

Have you seen this? How cool is that!!

From what I've read, the National Aquatics Center in Beijing is not only incredibly cool looking, it's also environmentally prudent. The bubbles are made of an extremely light material, reducing the need for steel in the frame. It's much less expensive than glass. Plus, it's probably easier to keep cool. The roof can collect rainwater and pool water and the venue can save 140,000 tons of recycled water every year.

Check it out from the inside: I hope NBC spends some time describing the building in between races. What is it, three weeks until the Olympics?

Eight Intriguing Burial Sites and Traditions

1. Burial of the Sardine; Spain. This comes at the end of Spain's Carnival celebration. One of the lighter burial ceremonies.

2. Bone House; Hallstatt, Austria. Due to a lack of space, the Austrians remove the skulls of the buried, paint them, and put them on show.

3. Hanging Coffins; Sagada, Luzon Island, Philippines. Also found in China and Indonesia, this practice entails putting the deceased in coffins and "burying" them in caves high in the cliffs.

4. Lemo Burial Site; Tana Toraja, Indonesia. Again, the dead are buried in cliffs, but the mouths of the cliffs are decorated with hundreds of dolls. (Creepy...)

5. Sky Burial; Tibet. For the Tibetan people, a sky burial was common practice. The deceased was left out in the open for hovering vultures as a gesture of charity. (Gee, thanks.)

6. Sunken Cemetery; Camiguin, Philippines. The city of Camiguin and its cemetery sits under the sea, after volcanic activity pushed it offshore. Its location underwater is marked by an enormous cross. This for the scuba-diving set.

7. Nazca Mummies; Nazca, Peru. Nazca mummies can be seen in the Atacama desert. "Propped up as if welcoming their visitors, they wear their hair long, thought to have once been a significant status symbol."

8. Rock Tombs; Myra, Turkey. 2,000 years old, the sides of mountains have dozens of tombs cut into them, making the rock wall look like the side of a castle.

I found this list on msnbc.com, although the article was produced by Reuters and it credits VirtualTourist.com as the true source. Reuters said that it does not "endorse" this list. What does that mean? Do they think there's a better list of burial tourism sites? Is there going to be an election in November to pick the best list?

But, my real question is, who would make their vacation plans revolve around burial sites??

Holy Cow!

Did you see this?????

Josh Hamilton hit a record 28 home runs during last night's Home Run Derby. Each one was more spectacular than the last. But what I loved was the story of the guy doing the pitching.

Clay Council is 71 years old, and first pitched batting practice to Hamilton during Little League. Every pitch was right down the middle, a little high, and fast enough to get out of the ballpark in a hurry.

According to WRAL.com, a radio station out of western North Carolina:

"Three weeks ago, Council got a call from the Texas Ranger with an invitation to pitch to Josh in Monday night's Home Run Derby in Yankee Stadium. "I want you to throw," Hamilton stated.

Council's reply, "I'm available!"

But first he wanted Josh to clear it with the Texas Rangers and Major League Baseball.

"At my age I didn't think the teams or major league would let you. I might have a stroke out there, a heart attack, fall dead," Council joked."

Everything turned out fine. Hamilton set a record with 28 home-runs in the first round. Council didn't die. And, more importantly, Hamilton spent another day sober.

My favorite moment might have been when that little kid asked for Hamilton's autograph in the middle of the first round. What a hoot.

Lessons in Love

In The New York Times, Ben Stein has a piece about the Economics of Love.

One highlight:

"Have a dog or many dogs or cats in your life. These are your anchors to windward and your unfailing source of love. Ben Franklin summed it up well. In times of stress, the three best things to have are an old dog, an old wife and ready money. How right he was."

This Can't Be Real, Can It?

There I am, reading the news, and I find a headline that looks interesting. It reads, "Microwave Ray Gun Controls Crowds with Noise." Not being a fan of excessive noise, I think, this sounds like an interesting concept -- make an environment inhospitable by blasting unpleasant sounds. Okay. This goes along with the time the American government tried to get Manuel Noriega out of his house by blasting rock music.

I start reading.

I immediately become horrified.

The article does not describe a sound outside that makes people unhappy and interested in running away. It's a sound inside their heads. The article begins, "A US company claims it is ready to build a microwave ray gun able to beam sounds directly into people's heads."

It continues, "The device – dubbed MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) – exploits the microwave audio effect, in which short microwave pulses rapidly heat tissue, causing a shockwave inside the skull that can be detected by the ears. A series of pulses can be transmitted to produce recognisable sounds."

Apparently, "The device is aimed for military or crowd-control applications, but may have other uses."

Gee, ya think?

Also, if a microwave pulse can "rapidly heat tissue" and cause a shockwave inside the skull, can't it also cause serious damage? James Lin of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Illinois in Chicago says, "You might see neural damage."

Huh.

This can't be real, can it?

Buzkashi

The national sport of Afghanistan.

Sepak Takraw

Otherwise known as Shaolin Soccer, Sepak Takraw is a sport that originated in Southeast Asia, although it may have had a Chinese precursor. It's a combination of volleyball and soccer, played with a net and a rattan ball.

In Bangkok, there's an ancient mural depicting a sepak takraw game between the Hindu god Hanuman and a troop of monkeys. Thailand hosts the World Championships every year, and this match is the Doubles match between Thailand and Laos from 2007. I like this video for the music and the super slo-mos. It's slow to start, you have to give it about a minute before it starts to get interesting. You may not believe what you see.

Tomorrow...buzkhazi.

Unfamiliar Territory

I'm off in unfamiliar territory -- British history. I just finished a book called The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale. It's great, you have to read it. The subtitle of the book is "A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective." It's essentially a murder mystery in the style of the classic "country house" crime -- a bunch of people are at a house in the middle of nowhere, someone is killed, and one of the people at the house is the culprit. The detective just has to figure out whose story doesn't wash. It's like the game Clue, only in a spooky British setting. It's a true story, did I mention that? Summerscale not only describes the crime but also includes a ton of literary references which show that Victorian England was fascinated with crimes and the detectives who solved them. She includes details of other crimes that happened at the same time. Grisly stuff. Very fun to read.

I've just started reading The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodward. Apparently, there was a brief time in the early 1700s when pirates had a sizable amount of territory in the Caribbean that they fashioned into an independent nation. Their rule was more egalitarian and democratic than the other Western civilizations represented in the area, and they became the heroes of sailors throughout the British empire. I've only just started the book, but it's very good.

I'm also working on The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner. (It is so nice to be at the pool now that my kids can really swim!!!) So far, I've read the chapters on Holland, Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, and Iceland. The author is trying to figure out where people are the happiest, and why. So far, he's revealed that wealthy people are marginally happier than poor people, but wealth is defined as having more than $15,000/year. Healthy people are somewhat happier than sick people, but not always. Lottery winners -- after a few years -- are less happy than people who have become disabled. Culture matters when it comes to being happy. So does work (not so much leisure -- that doesn't make people happy if they have too much of it). Religion matters, sometimes. Feeling connected is the best way to be happy. You have to feel connected to your family, your friends, your country, your creative and productive capabilities, your purpose in life, your surroundings, your government, everything. Marriage makes people happy, but children are a wash as they provide joy but also unparalleled amounts of stress and anxiety.

I'm also reading (if you can believe it) a book on auditory hallucinations. It's by Daniel B. Smith and it's called Muses, Madmen and Prophets; Rethinking the History, Science and Meaning of Auditory Hallucinations. Smith's father heard voices all his life and kept it to himself, thinking it was a terrible secret. His grandfather, however, heard voices all HIS life, but thought they were pleasant company. ((I guess it depends what kind of voices they are.)) Smith's contention is that voices used to be understood to be messages from God. Now, they are a sign of a pathological condition that requires immediate pharmaceutical attention. Hmm.

Plus, I've just started Steve Coll's The Bin Ladens. It's very good. I just don't like how it ends.

Hunger For Freedom

There's a new way to look at South Africa's history... through food. Anna Trapido has written "Hunger for Freedom; The Story of Food in the Life of Nelson Mandela." The book is one part biography and one part cookbook. It includes the Madiba's favorite recipes as well as details about key diplomatic meetings that took place over meals.

I was struck by one tidbit that appeared in the press releases surrounding the book... sour milk.

One of the things that Mandela wanted while he was in jail was sour milk. Apparently, that's the preferred taste of milk for people in some African communities.

After he was released from prison, Mandela was staying with a white friend in South Africa, and he put the milk outside over night to "ripen." The friend's servants wondered why their employer was making "their milk." They didn't realize that Mandela was a guest in the house.

Then, What, Exactly, Are They?

A High Court judge in England has ruled that Pringles are, in fact, not potato chips.

I'm not kidding.

What adds to the weirdness is that this is exactly what the producers of Pringles were hoping the judge would decide.

Turns out, if Pringles were potato chips, they would be subject to a 17.5% tax, Britain's value-added tax. The producers of Pringles were hoping to avoid this tax because it would make their product more expensive and, therefore, less attractive to the British consumers. The Pringles lawyers (and I can't believe someone got paid a ton of money to do this) argued that since Pringles had a "mouth melt" taste, "regular color" and "uniform shape" that is "not found in nature," they could not be taxed.

The real key to their argument, however, was that Pringles are less than 42% potato. (What, exactly, is the other 58%???)

They actually make Pringles from a batter. (Ew.) This, technically, makes Pringles mini-mini-mini-deep-fried-cakes.

Excuse the pun, but what really has me fried about this is the profound lack of logic in the British tax code. Why do they tax potatoes but not cake? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Is the tax applied in inverse proportion to the nutritional value of the food item? Isn't that somewhat problematic? Are they trying to make their people fat?

But this is their game...

Ping-Pong.

((Or, should I say Table Tennis?))

This will be the game to watch as it will carry some pretty heavy political overtones. Apparently, Taiwan has a chance to challenge mainland China at its own game. That would be huge!

Do you remember learning about how Taiwan broke from China during the Civil War, and how mainland China wants Taiwan back? Could you imagine trying to retain your independence by staring down China?????

By the time the two nations face each other across the Ping-Pong table, they will have already weathered the controversy surrounding the name of Taiwan. Apparently, Taiwan would like to be called Zhonghua Taipei, while the Chinese officials would prefer to call them Zhongguo Taipei. The difference translates roughly to the difference between "The Republic of Taipei," and "China's Taipei." There's going to be all manner of funny business regarding what the announcers call the athletes, trash-talking between the athletes, and how they are introduced during the opening ceremonies. Apparently, if the Taiwanese get their way, they will march near the athletes of Tanzania. If the Chinese get their way, the Taiwanese will march with the Central African Republic.

Such drama.

Let the games begin.

It is our game...*

You HAVE to read this article in the New York Times about the Chinese Olympic baseball team. Some highlights...

1. China automatically gets a baseball team in the Olympics because it is the host country.

2. Baseball isn't hugely popular in China, perhaps because Chairman Mao banned it because it was too Western.

3. The Chinese government won't pay for coaches because the team isn't going to win.

4. Major League Baseball decided to pay for coaches of the Chinese Olympic team because they'd like to get 1.3 billion Chinese fans for baseball.

5. Baseball will no longer be an Olympic sport after 2008, unless the International Olympic Committee reinstates it.

6. The baseball stadium built for the 2008 games will be torn down after the games. (What a waste!!!)

7. The Chinese coach, Jim Lefebvre, a former MLB manager, once played the role of a cannibal on Gilligan's Island.

8. Lefebvre said it took him a long time to explain to his players that they couldn't smile after striking out.

And it gets better and better after that. Wow.

*The title is from a quote at the end of Bull Durham. The line is "Walt Whitman once said, "'I see great things in baseball. It's our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us.'" I don't know if that's an actual Whitman quote, but it's a good one.

As Promised...

...I have a bunch of stuff to post about sports & games.

First off, did you see the article about the unruly mah-jongg enthusiasts in Osaka, Japan? Mah-jongg is a tile game which can either be played on your computer like solitaire or against another person. It turns out that the prefectural government in Japan constructed a facility for playing mah-jongg (like the chess tables in some parks in NYC) and then handed over the key to the facility to some guy who said he'd take care of it. Well, he has. He has turned the facility into a private club for his friends and he doesn't let anyone else in. The people of Osaka would like to use the park they paid to create, but the man now says he gave the key to a friend, and he'll try to get it back. Soon. Very soon.

Secondly, there was an article in ABC News about how the US government gave $500,000 to a program that intends to solve gang violence through the promotion of golf. Think about that for a moment. Let it seep through your brain. Picture what that would look like. Now, try to answer some questions...

1) Where are the kids going to play?
2) How would they be received by the other patrons of the courses they visited?
3) Is there a game more impossible to learn?
4) Why would you give troubled kids golf clubs with which they could beat each other?
5) If, and this is a BIG IF, you got a kid hooked on golf so much that he was willing to forgo his gang-violence-related-lifestyle...how would he pay to join a country club, travel there, get his own set of clubs, travel to tournaments, etc.??? Wouldn't you just be setting him (or her) up for more disappointment??

If you go to the website, you'll see there's more to the story, but I don't want to get into that here. (Short story: politics. Big surprise.)

Third, there was a little article in the New York Times about a case involving "spin rage." Turns out, two men were in a spin class and one was a grunter. During class he grunted at each breath and repeatedly shouted things like "you go girl." (To whom, exactly, I don't know.) Another man asked the instructor twice to get the grunter to be quiet. The grunter refused. Finally, the other man gets fed up, goes up to the grunter, and flips his bike over, knocking the man to the ground.

The grunter spent the next two weeks in the hospital, and the city of New York charged the other man with assault. A jury found him not guilty. It just so happens that New Yorkers, known around the world as some of the rudest people on earth, have standards for behavior in public. Unnecessary grunting will not be tolerated. (Especially, "you go girl"!!!) Another reason for the acquittal may have been that the grunter was really not that pleasant of an individual. Even the prosecutor trying his case described told the jury that he was " probably not someone 'you would want to hang out with regularly.'"

So, there you are.

More later.

Ew.

We talked a lot about how air pollution in China might affect the Olympics, but we didn't talk too much about the pollution in the water.

You probably assumed (as I did) that the Olympic athletes would be bringing their own drinking water, but they can't bring enough for sailing. It turns out that there's too much algae in the water and the sailing events won't be able to go on unless there's a massive clean-up effort. So, students and others are volunteering to shovel the algae out of the water and cart it away to be fed to pigs and other animals. The New York Times reports that although human and agricultural waste often produces "red tides" of algae blooms, this green algae is most likely the result of increased rainfall and warmer than average temperatures.

Whew!!

Our last loan was finally raised!! Abavi, pictured here, didn't raise all of her loan until yesterday. I was getting worried! I guess she got lost in the 500+ loans. But, she made it.

I still don't know what happens if a loan is not raised. I'll look into it.

We loaned our money on June 10th, and some people got their money that night, so we should start to get repayments next week. You can check the lender page for progress reports, too, if you'd like.

Locavores

If you're at all tuned in to the discussion of global warming, you will know that one of the issues being bandied about is the amount of greenhouse gases produced by the transportation of food.

Think Fiji Water.

If you drink water from the faucet in your kitchen, almost no greenhouse gases are involved. (There's a tiny bit of energy involved in either the washing of the cup that you use or the creation of the paper cup that you throw out later.)

However, if opt for a bottle of Fiji Water instead, then you have an entirely different situation. Your water is encased in a bottle made from petroleum products. The water has been shipped from the other side of the planet through the burning of a ridiculous amount of fuel. And, the bottle will almost never decompose, although you could recycle it. But, recycling means a big truck comes to your house, burning fuel, and carries the bottle to a recycling plant where even more energy is harnessed to convert your bottle back into something usable.

So, tons of people promote the idea of being a "locavore," someone who eats and drinks what she can find locally. Local foods use less fuel to transport them to your house, reducing your carbon footprint.

The New York Times has a great column called Freakonomics, and one of its authors devoted some time to this issue. It turns out, there may be another side to this story. It might be better (and more efficient) to allow food to be grown throughout the world and shipped over long distances.

Think apple juice. Yes, you could probably plant apple trees in your backyard and make your own apple juice. But, how much would the tree cost? How much would an apple press cost? How much time would it take you to create the juice? How much juice would you have when you were done? How much money would you waste in the process? Wouldn't it be better to buy apple juice at the grocery store, and give all the money you could have spent to an organization promoting awareness of climate change, if that was your concern?

Plus, there's the taste thing. Your own apple juice might be really sour. (Have you ever tried Fiji Water? It's remarkably good for something that's not supposed to have any taste.)

Most decisions regarding climate change boil down to a cost-benefit analysis. What is the cost of your decision? How much benefit will you enjoy from your decision? If the water tastes great, that's a benefit to you, but if it contributes to the warming of the planet, then it may turn out to cost you. (Think WALL-E.) The ideal choice is one which has the least cost and the greatest benefit. If your tap water tastes like metal pipes, it may be undrinkable. Your alternative should be something which produces good water without creating an unreasonable amount of waste. Brita water filters are an option. You get the idea.

On a random note, I heard on NPR yesterday that American SUVs consume more gasoline than all of India. Wow.

Yes, We Have No Bananas

Oooh, this looks like a good one.

Hi again! I'm back from my travels. And, here's the first of many posts on food. I read an op-ed piece in the New York Times last month about bananas. It was written by Dan Koeppel, who was just presenting the basics idea of his book. It looks really good. I might add it to the list for next fall.

Anyway, the op-ed piece talks about how Americans eat more bananas than apples and oranges combined, that we don't eat the same bananas that our grandparents ate, and that there was a worldwide banana fungus that wiped out the previous type of banana, leaving us with the less tasty banana we know today. (????) And, the author's website includes a picture of the Banana Hall of Fame. Such fun.

Did you see how Ingrid Betancourt was finally rescued from her six-year-long imprisonment in the Colombian jungle? That's good news!