Building the perfect banana

Everyday life offers plenty of reminders that we do not live in a perfect world, from the release of new Ashton Kutcher movies to pieces of damaged fruit. We may have to accept that Ashton won’t go away, but not so bruised bananas. Some clever folks in the U.K. are selling individual plastic banana-storage containers. The “Banana Guard” promises to make the vexing problem of “banana trauma” a thing of the past, with a “patented device” that protects the fruit while keeping the ripening process going with an intricate ventilation system. The hawkers of the vaguely obscene-looking product do not duck the tough questions—the fact that bananas come in different shapes and sizes, for one. According to FAQ No. 1, not to worry. “Our testing indicates that over 90 percent of commercially available bananas will fit into the Banana Guard. Highly curved bananas can be straightened ever so slightly without harm to fit the Banana Guard shape. The opposite holds true of very straight bananas.”

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

April 4, 2005 in Morrissey | Permalink