We're all in massive uncertainty, the world is falling apart. Yes, yes.
But let's keep things in perspective, because my world was turned upside down today. FOR REAL.
The person next to me in a meeting opened her banana from the bottom.
I couldn't stop staring, it was like a train wreck, only not as bad or gorey and no one got hurt. In fact, she seemed to enjoy her banana just fine. I swear it has never occurred to me EVER in my whole life to eat a banana any other way than from the stem down. That nice, handle-shaped piece that seems positively engineered for opening. Yet there she was, holding her banana by the stem and munching away from the bottom down to the top.
I have not been able to get this out of my mind all day. Like looking at a mirror image that is just a little off, or trying to cross your arms with the opposite arm on top than you normally do (try it--I'll wait.)
Am I crazy? (yes) Am I grasping at any small thing to help me feel in control of my circumstances? (probably) How do you eat your bananas?
38 comments:
Wacky. Absolutely wacky. Even my husband thinks it's totally bizarre. What is this world coming to?
That's just wrong!
I most definitely always eat my banana from the top and doing it any other way smacks of pure anarchism, so keep an eye on that woman. She may be a revolutionary. Does she wear Che Guevara T-shirts and smoke Cuban cigars? You never know what sort of strange habits these people pick up in their training camps.
Heh, I had a boyfriend who always ate bananas that way too. Bizarre alright. He was a Mexican Indian, maybe it's a cultural thing!!? Or, not.
How did she get into the banana? Did she have a knife to slice off the tip? I'm a radical, I know, but I can kind of see the point: a nice handle at the bottom, and no yucky bit at the end.
That's just crazy! She probably leaves the toilet seat up, too.
Talk about trying to make easy things difficult!
I think I read somewhere recently that it *is* a cultural thing - in some countries that's how they roll (with their bananas). Myself? Top down nana eater.
I am American so I always eat my bananas top down. It is patriotic, I believe, and also how Homeland Security recommends you do it. However, I knew a guy who grew up in Madagascar and he ate his from the bottom. He learned to do it there. He felt quite strongly that it makes more sense, and that when you open a banana from the bottom, you avoid risking having the first bit of it go all mushy from bending the top back and forth trying to get it to open. He felt it was "more natural."
I tried it but it was too weird and foreign for me. You do what you want though. It is, technically, a free country.
I've never seen anyone eat one bottom up, but the stem would make a nice handle. I have a banana shaped limoges box and it's peeled the wrong way, from the bottom up. Is it a French thing?
Why reinvent the wheel.
Did you confront her about this? Was there an intervention? That is so...totally...freaky. After it was peeled, did she eat it like she would corn on the cob? I am so totally blown away.
How do I eat my bananas? THE RIGHT WAY. (and that means not from the bottom up. *grin*)
But, the bananas you pictured are much too yellow for me. My bananas have to be on the green side.
Why? How? But now that I think about it it makes sense. The stem would make a fine little handle. I hate it when I have to look at things in a new and fresh way.
thank you, oh nameless bottom-to-top banana eater for breaking us out of our boxes! and thank you, nora, for spreading the idea about, to us seemingly narrow-minder bloggers.
BANANA REVOLUTION!
Well don't that just beat all?
I think eating a banana backwards is just that; backwards.
OMG I'm out of bananas. Must go now to the supermarket. I have to try this. Revolution indeed!!
Are you kidding me?
No one in their right mind eats it that way.
Not even the very youngest of kids.
That is a LITTLE odd. Perhaps she lost a ton of money in the stock market? Banana stock? Who knows.
I delighted in your interview on Mrs. G's. Great pictures and I loved that poem.
That's weird. Although I admit to doing that ONCE in my life. It was because the banana had already split funny at the bottom... you know, like when your zipper busts open in the middle and you can't figure out how it happened? like that.
As a fellow banana eater I would have to agree with the panel and believe, as an American, we eat from the top down.
BUT....
I hear when you eat it "backwards" you do not get the little strings.. I think I heard that on martha or something.
I love you little Hugo and your poem on Slow cook over at the Manor.
Good egg, lady. I am sure.
Lisa
coastalnest
Never in my born days have I seen such a thing.
You crack me. Thanks.
Actually if you eat them from the bottom it takes that little black bit off the bottom, you know the piece I mean? If you eat it, it's bitter and hard.
That should say "you crack me up". Not crack me, that's totally not your fault I was cracked before I got here. Not the drug kind of crack, don't get me wrong, justed cracked, like crazy.
Did I mention, I'm actually supposed to be working and not reading funny blog posts? Guess I should go before you think I'm like stocking you or something.
Late to the game as usual...but, and.. and wow...who would have thought that a question about peeling a banana would elicit so many responses. Perhaps I will do a post about peeling an orange.
Seriously, about the banana, because this is serious, I think that I am ac dc on this. I swing either way.
Now, that being said...think about this: When you shower, do you scrub your left underarm or right underarm first; when you put your deodorant on, which arm comes first, when you put your pants on, which leg comes first, when you brush your teeth, which of those little pearly whites do you attack first...when you put a shirt on, which arm do you put in first...and last, but not least, when do you use commas, semi-colons, colons...dots..or are they really spelled colons?
Excuse me, while I protect my colon and refuse to have it photographed.
Hope that you had a wonderful weekend with the adorable Hugo and your significant other..e.
That sight would definitely turn my world upside down too! Weird. Plain and Simple.
I'm going to try that with my very next banana. Probably turn my whole day upside down but I just have to try it now.
Darla
how did she even open it?
I think that's how monkeys do it.
I'm not saying that's right. I mean, there are a lot of things monkeys do that I wouldn't encourage, including throwing feces at people.
But I'm pretty sure I read that that's how monkeys do it.
This blew my mind when I read it back in June. I thought this might be where you were headed:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/opinion/18koeppel.html
Crazy!
Oh, that's too funny! I open mine from the top. With a knife, of course.
That is just plain wrong!
Look how many comments you have! You're so poplular!
Okay, I haven't read everything, but just yesterday I got an email from a neighbor with useful "facts," one of which was, if you peel your banana from the bottom up, you don't get "strings." But I have tried this before, and it doesn't work.
In my family, we eat our bananas from the top down, always leaving the banana "butt" behind.
OMG, I just had to come back and read more comments. I think if I tried to eat a banana from the bottom up...I would have to go back to bed and start my day all over again. You know, in order to right that which had been wronged.
This post is begging for a poll. YOu might be the only poll on record with a 99% "from the top", margin of error .01%
Oh, I just found you and I'm KEEPING you.
I don't even know how you'd OPEN a banana without the little handle doo-hickey.
But, I did read the etiquette lady What's-her-nose describe the PROPER way to eat a banana. You ready?
You're supposed to SLICE IT IN HALF and then SCOOP IT OUT to eat it, spoonful by spoonful.
Otherwise, she says, you look like a MONKEY.
First of all: Jodi's comment "did she eat it like she would corn on the cob?" made me LOL! :D
Second of all: The arm crossing. I tried it. Not as bad as I thought.
Third of all: Re: Your question... you're not going to like this answer.
The middle. Yes that's right. I generally start from the middle.
You see, I USED to start from the stem, just like you, but there were too many times when I'd bend and twist and TWIST the darned thing and it just would not OPEN! It would be too rubbery, and by the time I FINALLY got it to peel, half the bananana had turned into puree.
But, somewhere, somehow, someday, I discovered that most bananas can be snapped in half right at the middle. No, I'm not kidding. Now I'll wait while YOU try it. -No... not that brown one with the spots. Get a yellow one. Quick snap. Right in the middle. Go ahead. No wimping around.
There. See? That's how I open bananas :)
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