We're hoping we can avoid a jinx. (Photo by Pete) Over the past couple of days, we've asked our fellow Yahoo!s about some of their fears and phobias. Today, we'd like to deal with their superstitions -- and ways to ward off bad luck. Some of us have superstitions, rather than outright fears. Personally, I’m not superstitious, but my wife won't let me put shoes on the bed, and I won't walk under ladders, and will throw spilled salt over my shoulder and knock on wood to ward off anything untoward happening. Corinne: My mum always says that we shouldn't open an umbrella in the house, and never celebrate your birthday before the day. But, being French, we always have baguettes on the table -- though you should never place them upside down…. Adam: As a sailor, I have quite a few superstitions: never leave for a voyage on a Friday, never talk about lack of wind, and don't bring bananas on a boat. Randall: I obsessively knock on wood. When it came time to buy a wedding ring, I bought one that was made out of wood so that I could "knock on wood" wherever I am. Michelle: I'm not generally a superstitious person, but I do believe in jinxing things, especially traffic and baseball. When the Indians are winning or traffic is surprisingly light, any positive comment must be prefaced with, "I'm sure they're about to blow it, but..." or "I know we'll hit a traffic jam soon, but..." Failing to do this guarantees sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic while listening to the Yankees win the World Series. Liz: I fear that if I mention the possibility of something bad happening, it's more likely to happen. Wait -- forget I said that! We leave you with a pair of examples of arachnophobia that are frighteningly similar: Helene: I am afraid to death of spiders, small or large, hairy or not, and all the more since a "good" friend told me that we swallow three spiders while sleeping each year. Adrianna: I'm not scared of rats or snakes but I am deathly afraid of spiders. Even the tiniest spiders scare me, and I make sure when I'm walking to watch out for those sticky spider webs. But from a recent fact I read, I'm never more than ten feet away from a spider. Now that's a frightening thought. A frightening thought, indeed. Good luck to you all -- knock wood! Suggested Sites... All Recipes: French Baguettes - keep one in the house for good luck. Traditional Nautical Superstitions - no women, no whistling. Insecta-Inspecta: Arachnophobia - sorry, they're still creepy. Wikipedia: Baseball Superstitions - if the team is doing well, I can't change position. World Series.com - watch the horror for yourself.

Directory categories: Superstitions, Umbrellas, Traffic and Road Conditions, Major League Baseball, Spiders

Archived under: Bananas, Baseball, Curses, Phobias, Psychology, Sailing, Spiders, Superstition

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(Photo by Ian Ransley) If you’re a typical American, you eat about 27 pounds of them a year. But beware! Bananas are on the road to extinction -- in ten to thirty years, that tasty banana you had for breakfast may no longer exist. How is this possible? After all, there are over 1,000 varieties of banana that grow in more than 100 countries, and the Cavendish (what you know as the generic "banana") is only one of them -- and is actually looked down upon by many connoisseurs as being bland. But, in fact, the Cavendish is a relative newcomer. From 1880 to the 1950s, the banana known to our forefathers was the "Gros Michel" (also known as "Big Mike"). In the 1950s, though, "Big Mike" succumbed to a fungus that virtually wiped out the variety (it can still be found in small quantities on remote plantations). Banana growers searched for a replacement and came up with the Cavendish, in spite of the difficulty in transporting it. After much experimentation, researchers determined that if the Cavendish were taken from the tree (where they will not ripen; only a picked banana will do that) and sealed in containers or rooms filled with ethylene gas, the ripening process could be delayed while the fruits made their two-week journey from field to your supermarket. In their time, those banana growers have shown more powers than the ability to retard spoilage; their machinations in the late nineteenth century led to the control and overthrowing of more than one Central or South American government (hence "banana republic"). In fact, that's what inspires our exegesis on bananas today; on this date in 1932, martial law was declared in Honduras to stop a revolt by banana workers fired by the United Fruit Company (known today as Chiquita). The reason Cavendish bananas are endangered is that they all are genetically identical -- clones of one another, which cannot reproduce naturally. Without the help of humans, the Cavendish could not exist -- although that point may be moot if the banana fungus that wiped out the Gros Michel and the Cavendishes of Asia and Australia makes it across the Pacific. Dedicated banana scientists are working night and day to breed different genetic traits into the Cavendish to ensure its longevity and resistance to the fungus, but if you wake up some morning in the future and are faced with putting apples or grapes on your corn flakes -- well, don’t say we didn’t warn you … Suggested Sites... Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World - official site for Dan Koeppel's book on the social, political, and gastronomic history of the banana. Popular Science: Can This Fruit Be Saved - details the scientific efforts going into saving the Cavendish. NewYork Times: Yes, We Will Have No Bananas - well, maybe -- if we play our cards right. Snopes: Banana Peal - examines the facts and rumors around banana extinction. Bananas, A Storied Fruit with an Uncertain Future - NPR's Terry Gross interviews Koeppel about his book.

Directory categories: Bananas, Fruit, Extinction, Biotechnology, Food

Archived under: Anniversaries, Bananas, Clones, Endangered Species, Extinction, Food and Drink, Fruit, History

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