Bananas: Bad Luck or Good Eatin?

[first wind]

Originally Posted by HopCar

If you read the Snope's report on this you'll see they mention Fruit of the Loom underwear as being banned on some boats. The are puzzled as there are no bananas on the label.


There is a story as to why there is no banana on the Fruit of the Loom label.


It seems that a group of executives from Fruit of the Loom went fishing with Bouncer Smith out of Miami Beach. Bouncer is a firm believer in No Bananas.
The executives were not having any luck. Bouncer searched the boat for bananas and found none. One of the executives joked that there was a banana on the label of their underwear. Bouncer made them all throw their underwear overboard. They immediately started catching fish. When they got back to work, they had the banana removed from the Fruit of the Loom label.


Now remember I said this was a story. I don't know if it is true, but I know Bouncer and I believe he would force people to throw away banana underwear.


If you want to charter a fishing trip out of Miami, I highly recommend Bouncer.

but, for pete's sake! don't go aboard his boat unless you go commando!

[first wind]

Originally Posted by Serene86

When I worked on schooners bananas were considered bad luck by sailors for a few reasons:
1. Bananas ripen quickly so required fast vessels to transport them. Skipjack schooners were used but tended to capsize and sink when overloaded with bananas.
2. Hands of bananas would occasionally harbor tarantulas which would invariably wind up biting a hapless crew member.

bloody heck! i've been going bananas with this thread and having real fun. now i've got to be serious for a moment.

skipjacks aren't schooners. they are traditional chesapeake bay working sloops used to dredge oysters. they have a strongly raked mast and a huge powerful low aspect bermuda main and a clipper style bow. i believe they were a development of the bugeye but, i might be wrong about that.

now, back to the fun.

[Jason Flare]

Originally Posted by first wind

it's the green bags. they are like tinfoil hats. they keep out the banana curse. now...you definitely don't want to keep them in white bags.

The bananas definitely ripen slowly in the green bags.

I would have been willing to pay much more for them had I known they did double duty. And keeping out a curse no less. You can't put a number on that!

[first wind]

Originally Posted by Delancey

not so sure about that

no. those aren't from a shipwreck. those are sea bananas. a distant relative of the sea cucumber. sea cucumbers shoot their intestines out at threatening predators. sea bananas shed their slippery skin as they flee, causing predators to slip and slide in such a comical way that they leave the sea banana alone out of sheer embarrassment.

in the sea of cortez they work in partnership with the humboldt squids to help the squids catch unfortunate fishermen. true story. that's probably where the superstition comes from; a case of mistaken identity. i'm sure there is an animal planet special about them. has to be.

[first wind]

Originally Posted by Jason Flare

The bananas definitely ripen slowly in the green bags.

I would have been willing to pay much more for them had I known they did double duty. And keeping out a curse no less. You can't put a number on that!

certainly not if it's the number 13!


well that's it for me. it's bath time. i've got to.....split