Q. What's the difference between a banana republic and the United States?

erik_kosberg · #1 02-06-2006, 11:06 PM

A. The United States produces relatively few bananas.

Discuss.

**amykhar** · #2 02-06-2006, 11:13 PM

Hmmm. Did you consider Hawaii?

*emeleel* · #3 02-06-2006, 11:29 PM

Did you know that Dole is ceasing its pineapple production in Hawaii over the next two year?

erik_kosberg · #4 02-06-2006, 11:48 PM

Quote:

amykhar said

Hmmm. Did you consider Hawaii?

Yes; that's why I said relatively few instead of no.

**amykhar** · #5 02-06-2006, 11:55 PM

Yes, we have no bananas...

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #6 02-07-2006, 08:14 AM

We have no bananas today!

*emeleel* · #7 02-07-2006, 10:57 AM

I have 8 bananas in my fridge.

**mtomm**[$] · #8 02-07-2006, 05:15 PM

Quote:

emeleel said

I have 8 bananas in my fridge.

You keep your bananas in the fridge? Don't they turn black and then your kids refuse to eat them?

*emeleel* · #9 02-07-2006, 06:11 PM

Nope, although keeping them in the bottom bin probably helps. Newer fridge helps, too. I prefer bananas cold to warm, although I'll eat them warm, too.

The fridge we had at work back when I worked was absolutely ANCIENT, and if I put a banana in there when I got to work, the outside was solid black and the thing was half frozen.

**theworm**[$] · #10 02-07-2006, 07:04 PM

My neighbors used to have banana plants, trees? Yummy little bananas. They grew so crazy and he was always hacking at them so they got rid of them. I miss the bananas, but I wasn't sorry to see the plants go after he told me that they attract taratulas.

poseidon · #11 02-07-2006, 07:24 PM

My grandma down in Miami Beach grows bananas, well, plantians actually, in her back yard.

Quote:

go after he told me that they attract taratulas.

While it is true that tarantulas will come with imported bananas, I think your neighbor is likely confusing it with the banana spider. Big, ugly thing, but not the same as a tarantula.

Thank you, I now remembered reason #78 under the "Why I'm Glad I Left Florida" list.

rmthunter · #12 02-08-2006, 09:48 AM

Quote:

theworm said

My neighbors used to have banana plants, trees? Yummy little bananas. They grew so crazy and he was always hacking at them so they got rid of them. I miss the bananas, but I wasn't sorry to see the plants go after he told me that they attract taratulas.

OK -- comment from the natural history nerd: Bananas are actually considered an herb; they don't really live for very long and put out offshoots, which is why your neighbor had to keep cutting them down -- otherwise, they would have taken over.

And what Jeff said about banana spiders.

Which reminds me -- I have to pick up some bananas.

**theworm**[$] · #13 02-08-2006, 09:50 AM

Yes - every time they gave off fruit, the stalky part would be done and new shoots would come up, so he was out there with a safari hat and a mashetti hacking at them. I used to laugh, but it was hard work. No more bananas. And it was the mashetti maniac that told me about the torantulas. It's possible he was just teasing me (though he knows I would have called him to kill them!).
I love bananas.

*emeleel* · #14 02-08-2006, 10:19 AM

I'm eating a banana for breakfast.

**mtomm**[$] · #15 02-08-2006, 12:59 PM

I don't care much for bananas. I really don't like artificial banana flavor. Blech.

poseidon · #16 02-08-2006, 01:22 PM

Bananas make Michelle nauseus. Even the smell of it ruins her appetite. So, we don't eat them, and I don't get banana-flavored stuff, which I enjoy.