h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Banana Trip: Fake Hippie News from 1967 - A87891123
Author: Dmitri Gheorgheni - U1590784

I was inspired to write this after watching a documentary on William Powell last night. (I don't recommend the documentary, as it's a hatchet job.) I'd never actually read the 'Anarchist Cookbook', though I'd always meant to. So over to the Internet Archive I went.

I thought it was finally time to let the public know about the Great Banana Hoax. Apparently, kids are still asking.

I don't know about bananas, but when I was at Aberystwyth, there were stories of people consuming magic mushrooms.

I love your fake news entries. You had me off in another world there, no hallucinogenic required

I confess I had never heard of smoking banana skins, but I have heard of Donovan's hit Mellow Yellow, now an earworm

I am moved to tell you of my mother who loves sliced banana toppings on her meals. It stems from rationing during and after the war, when bananas were so scarce that some children grew to adulthood without having seen one. It's in her care plan that she likes sliced banana on her breakfast cereal. You wouldn't believe how many ways I have seen "banana" spelt in the daily log by the various carers over the last 4½ years. I'm willing to forgive that if only they would spell her name correctly but I digress.

My cat hates bananas, but I love them. I compost the skins, and will continue to do so, although I will try and avoid breathing in when I am distributing the mulch

GB

I'd go easy on those mushrooms, MVP.

I'd like to point out that I did a lot of research for this one - reading back issues of the 'Berkeley Barb', chasing down old newspaper accounts, exploring the Anarchist Cookbook etc. But the one I want credit for is the hour or so I spent trawling through the Congressional Record to locate Frank Thompson's banana speech. The search function on Internet Archive won't work on those microfilms.

Boy, were those Congressmen *boring*.

I've never known a banana-eating cat, GB. But I sympathise with your mum. People in the US have taken bananas for granted ever since they were aggressively marketed in the very early 20th Century - originally as the perfect baby food.

But in Greece in the 1980s, kids would do anything for a banana. There were black market bananas for sale on the highways outside of Athens at weekends...all because of a silly law against importing them, meant to protect the miserable Cypriot crop of inferior bananas...

While there's no such thing as 'bananadine', I believe bananas are a good source of potassium. Which will help if you take water pills, and also stave off muscle cramps, so very good for older humans.

How can you misspell 'banana'? That's amazing.

Aagh. There's determination for you. Keep calm and have a banana.

I didn't mean she didn't like to eat them, I meant if *I* were eating one, she wouldn't come near me. She can't bear the smell! (You have me giggling now, at the thought of her eating one)

I didn't think you could misspell banana either, but you live and learn.

Some of them: banna, bana, bannanna, I even once saw a "bananya"...

Then there's 'bandanna'...

I'm with your cat, GB - I can't stand the smell of bananas either, probably because I spent quite a long time in my youth drinking medicine that was supposedly made to taste better by being flavoured with fake banana...

This thread reminds me of someone (I can't remember who, though) who always says banananana...

Do you mean Nanny Ogg?

<BB<

I thought it was one of the bananas in pyjamas? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0XNR1fY6mc

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!