my life as a nomad

a tale of two banana rooms

what would you do with 15 tons of bananas?

that's the question my employers were asking last week. it seems that someone in the fresh foods department made an extremely unfortunate error, and shipped out bananas to all the stores from the wrong room. now, this in and of itself wasn't a horrendous crime, as the bananas that were shipped were sent out a day too early, so they'd be just a tad under-ripe. however, it did mean that the bananas that were supposed to be shipped out that night were still there, maturing in ripeness like bananas always do, and would thus be unsalable the next day.

the bananas were in perfect condition... the problem is, by the time they were shipped to the stores, put on the shelves, and bought and brought home, they'd have gone past being "perfectly ripe" to being "disgustingly brown and smushy." thus, a surplus of bananas. unsaleable, unshippable, but perfect for eating.

so they decided to give them all away. there's quite a few people who work at A.W.S., but then again, there were lots of bananas, so there was plenty for all. even if everyone brought some home, it'd come out to something like 20 lbs of bananas per person.

that's alot of bananas.

so i took a few bunches, trying to do my part to rid them of their excessive burden of bananas. we ate some, gave some away, and that was that. but it got me to thinking...

what could you do with 30,000+ lbs of bananas? there has to be some great idea, some unrealized dream that only a cornucopia of bananas could make possible. but what is it? make the worlds largest smoothie? befriend an entire colony of monkeys? create a giant slip-n-slide? sell them to criminals to aid in their escapes from law enforcement (i mean, it always works in the books, doesn't it? criminal throws a banana peel on the ground, cop slips, criminal gets away)?

my top five things to eat that include a banana:

1. banana cream pie. so good
2. peanut butter and banana sandiwch. never had it? you gotta try
3. a smoothie. needs assorted other fruits, but bananas and milk are the main ingredients
   
4. banana bread. a no-brainer, i know, but a good recipe still makes for worthwhile eating
   
5. banana and cheese. i'm stretching my brain at this point to think of things, but this is actually pretty good. just take a banana, wrap a piece of cheese around it, and enjoy

"and i learn a valuable lesson about banana peels and me sliding on them." the end.

posted by Patrick @ 6:30 PM