The Fruit Explorer Investigates Fruit-themed Clothing, Part 2 of 2

(Continued from Part  1)

Fruit Hats

Fruit hats are dominated by Carmen Miranda hats, which were covered on 12 Oct 2014. Therefore, here I will only cover hats that look like fruit or picture fruit but will pass over hats that are piled high with fruit. 

Hats that Look Like Fruit

         

      

Hats with Fruit Images

Sad to say, all of these hats are casual hats. I was unable to find a fruit-themed hat that would be suitable for wear by Fred Astaire.

                     

                        

Hats as Part of Fruit Outfits

   

Hats Worn by Animals

                           

Hats Worn by Fruit

Conclusion

Note the prevalence of watermelon, strawberry, and banana garments; apparently these are the most garment-friendly fruits. Where are kiwi and the dragon fruit, which are the most popular fruits in art (24 Aug 2014)? I had to look hard to find the single kiwi garment pictured above. (You will see dragon fruit clothes in the e-mails of 17, 24, and 25 Aug 2014, but these are mere drawings rather than real clothes.) Recall that the e-mail on tattoos (26 Oct 2014) found that strawberries, cherries, and starfruit were the most popular fruit tattoo; strawberries are richly represented in the fruit clothing, cherries are much less common, and starfruit is absent. The conclusion is that different fruits are appropriate to different arenas of creative endeavor. No fruit is universal, though strawberry comes the closest.

Gift Idea

This entire e-mail is a non-stop cornucopia of gift ideas. To deal with this fire-hose of gift possibilities, zero in on a specific garment by thinking about what your target recipient most needs. An alluring Halloween costume? An everyday garment? Protection for a hair-do? Protection against bald-spot sunburn? A cute suit for a child? Remember, fruit never goes out of style. (You can find where to buy the pictured items as well as many others by googling "Fruit clothing images" or "Fruit hat images," finding the relevant picture, clicking on the picture, and clicking on the "Visit Page" button to find the page from which the picture was taken. The granddaddy of fruit hat sites is http://www.aliexpress.com/price/fruit-hats_price.html, which offers hundreds of fruit hats at dirt cheap prices.)

Travel Trip

Tired of the trashy travel souvenirs that you habitually bring home from your trips? As is true in so many areas of endeavor, use fruit to turn your life around.

One of the truisms of travel is that every destination on earth has some souvenir item that is best purchased there. For example, if you go to Peru, the items that are best to buy are sweaters, hats, serapes, and other wool, alpaca, and vicuna products. A general travel tip is that when you go somewhere, you should buy as a souvenir the item that is best bought there rather than something that you could get back home, probably cheaper. Every place has its characteristic fruits, so your fruit travel tip is on every trip to look for a fruit garment that will serve as a vivid reminder of that place. For example, coming back from Southeast Asia with a rambutan (21 Sept 2014) tee shirt (see below) will be a travel memory aid par excellence. Or if you go to Peru, where the tomato, potato, and avocado originated, the ideal travel souvenir would be an alpaca sweater featuring these glories of nature. Whenever you wear these souvenirs, fruit will serve as the vehicle that will whisk your mind back to your magical travel experience

         

Fruit Explorer Miscellany IV

Here is the latest collection of follow-ups and fruit thoughts.

In the e-mail of 2 Oct 2015 I discussed Moondrops, the oddball grapes shaped like Vienna sausages produced by The Grapery, which uses fancy names for its grapes such as Witch's Fingers, Cotton Candy, Sweet Surrender, and Gumdrop. The Grapery indulges in high-toned bragging about how good its grapes taste. On 12 Nov 2015 I bought some standard-looking red grapes from the Grapery that were labeled  "Flavor Promise." They tasted the same as other red grapes of various brands that I had recently tried. Therefore, I am once again unable to confirm The Grapery's claims about the tastiness of its grapes.

On 12 Jun 2015 you read about the Mustard Museum. I learned that this museum has become a standard of comparison when I heard on National Public Radio, 7 Jan 2016, "If mustard has a museum, the bobbleheads deserve a hall of fame." You might want to check out this hall of fame's site. It provides the gift idea for this e-mail, namely bobbleheads (see picture below from this site). Many sites, such as this one, allow you to order a custom bobblehead, which is crafted from a picture. Think how flattered a gift recipient would be receive a bobblehead in his or her image. Bobbleheads have already caught on in my circle; Pepe and Dave Robinson both own Luis Tiant bobbleheads.

In the e-mail of 18 July you learned about a very expensive coffee that is made from coffee beans passed through the digestive tract of an elephant.On 8 Jan 2016, in an episode of the NBC program "Elementary," Sherlock Holmes refreshed himself with a brew of this elephant coffee. A grossed-out Watson refused the offer of a cup. The lesson from this and the previous paragraph is that you need to read Fruit Explorer e-mails if you are to fully understand NPR broadcasts or even network TV programs. (Do you think that the author of that episode of "Elementary" learned about the elephant coffee by reading the Fruit Explorer?)

I recently read, Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake, where on p. 85 of my paperback edition appeared the following sentence: "Sonia asks her father to buy her a slice of jack-fruit, which makes her lips itch unbearably, then swell to three times their size." I am gratified to see that the jack fruit (4 Aug 2014) has entered world literature. (This is the only book I own that is stamped, "For Sale in the Indian Subcontinent Only." Its original price when new was 395 rupees.)

Here is the latest installment of Celebrities and Fruit. On 4 Jan 2016 the website of the Boston Globe ran a story on the chef for Tom Brady (celebrated quarterback of the New England Patriots) and Gisele Bundchen (stunning supermodel). This chef seems to embrace every food fad; you can read this article to get a quick survey of current fads. In particular, he says, "Sugar is the death of people." (See the e-mail of 19 Dec 2016 for my view on this claim.) He spills the beans that Brady does not eat nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, chili peppers) or mushrooms. The chef likes to use spirulina, which he terms a "super fruit." (Wikipedia describes spirulina as a cyanobacterium that is high in protein and which is complete but slightly less balanced than the protein of meat, eggs, and dairy; spirulina protein costs thirty times as much as the protein from these standard sources. Spirulina grows naturally in tropical and subtropical lakes. It was a major food source for the Aztecs, and NASA has considered it as a suitable food to be cultivated on long-duration space missions.) The question for this e-mail, however, is: What is the attitude of the Brady household toward fruit? The chef reveals, "The kids eat fruit. Tom, not so much. He will eat bananas in a smoothie. But otherwise, he prefers not to eat fruits." It looks like I will have to look elsewhere for a celebrity endorsement of fruit.

I have several times quoted or referred to Pliny the Elder (5 Nov and 25 Dec 2015). I had always pronounced this name with a long I as in "tiny." Carla corrected me; it is pronounced with a short I as in "tinny" (or "ignoramus"). As David Ellerman once pointed out, "The Achilles' heel of the autodidact is mispronunciation."

As you have read (3 Jul 2015), my favorite fruit is cherries. On 26 Dec 2015 Carla introduced me to cherries jubilee, a cherry dish I had never tasted before. This delight was perhaps my highlight of 2015. Below are two pictures from the Internet. The first shows cherries jubilee served in the traditional manner over vanilla ice cream, which is how Carla served it. The second picture shows the appealing variant of serving over both vanilla ice cream and shortbread.

  

Do you agonize over whether your fruit is ripe? Then you need a fruit firmness tester. A digital fruit tester "... can be used by research departments, universities, packing houses and farms to measure the firmness of almost any fruit - apples, pears, strawberries, grapes, melons and much more. Help improve your product's quality with quick and accurate firmness measurements, which are a commonly accepted maturity indicator." Don't get the idea that this is a joke. As one vendor states, "Fruit penetrometers are widely used by universities for fruit research and by fruit companies to make important business decisions." Digital fruit testers start at $299.99 (see the first two pictures below). If you are satisfied with an analog fruit tester, you can get one for a low as $129.99 (see the last two pictures below). Your party tip is to insure the success of your next party by using a fruit tester to make sure that the fruit you serve is perfectly ripe. Do you need a gift idea for the man who has everything? Give him a fruit tester. 

On 1 Jan 2016 you read of Pepe;'s plan to plant a mamey seed indoors and grow a mamey bonsai tree. He has now planted the seed. If and when if comes up, you will hear. Recall that a mamey tree in the wild can grow to 140 feet.

Below is the latest Fruit Explorer art work, "Sticker Shock VIII." This contains PLU stickers of fruit I have eaten from 13 Nov 2015 to 5 Jan 2016. At the bottom you can see the first vestiges of this season's onslaught of large navel oranges, which will last for six months. #4012 refers to standard navel oranges and #3110 to cara cara navel oranges (8 Feb 2015). (The Internet has struck again. In many past e-mails I have referred you to the site that you can use to look up PLU codes and see what fruit or vegetable they represent. I just discovered that the link I have given you is now dead. Here is the new link. This new page has the advantage that it lets you start with a PLU number or a fruit name.)

Rick

The Fruit Explorer Investigates Fruit Computer Games

This post is a selective survey of some of the use of fruit in contemporary computer games. This provides a window into one arena of fruit-inspired creativity. For completeness, this post incorporates material from the post of 11 Sep 2015 in the discussion of the first game below; the remainder of this post is new. 

The name of each game is in boldface and a description of the game is quoted from the referenced website. If I was able to play a game, I summarize my experience.

Amazing Fruit Explorer

Description: "Travel along with the Magic Fruits to Five different Worlds: Fruits, Diamond, Bubble, Gem and Birds, to explore different wonders and secrets of each world. Along the way you can experience one of the most addictive game play ever created. Once you start the journey you can't stop until you explore all the places in the maps." 

I couldn't play this game since it requires an iPhone.

 

Orange Bubbles

Description: "Shoot the bubbles and combine at least 3 of the same color to remove them from the field. Drop the oranges to complete a level. How many fruits can you harvest?" 

I played this game but could not figure it out; the second picture shows me being unable to defend the orange in the upper left. This game needs better instructions. I do not plan to play this game again.

   

Save Fruit Doll

Description: "Your goal is to rescue the lovely fruit dolls." 

I didn't try to play this game since it required me to install something.

Fruit Chef

Description: "Fruit Chef is a classic arcade game. You're the best chef in the world but someone has decided to challenge your skills. They decide to throw fruits up for you to see if you can slice them cleanly before they hit the floor. Slice fruits by swiping from the bottom and up. Avoid bad objects. Upgrade your knife to increase your performance. When you are skilled, you will get special orders. Enjoy Fruit Chef."  

You cut a fruit in two by manipulating your mouse or other pointing device so that you move the pointer over the flying fruit. When I tried to play this game, I was repeatedly thrown into another game where I was required to defend a castle. It's a mystery to me why they kept trying to make me play the castle game. After overcoming my first challenge of avoiding this castle game, I eventually got to the point where I could play Fruit Chef. The second picture below is a screenshot taken right after I successfully sliced a pear. I found that my trackball was well adapted to this game. (Trackballs are popular among air traffic controllers.) The problem is that I did not perceive what was fun about this game, so I did not find it rewarding. I do not plan to play this game again.

   

  

Fruit Scoot

Description: "Join Dan and Penelope on their mission to rescue the animals of this fruity kingdom. Hop on the smoothie van and Fruit Scoot your way through hundreds of levels in this delicious new puzzler adventure. Swipe, match, and blend fresh fruit pieces to produce juicy fruit smoothies and help the animals discover a healthier and nutritious alternative to cookies and candies!" 

I didn't try to play this game since it required me to install something.

Fruit as a Teaching Tool for Budding Poets

A video simultaneously teaches kids about fruit and how to rhyme.  Strictly  speaking, this is not a game, but it is for kids. I only watched the first two minutes of this monster 73 minute video. (I did flip ahead to sample it to make sure that it is all about fruit.  At 36:32 it exhorts kids to save orange peels to use in cosmetics. I guess a video this long can get into real depth and teach kids skills that will come in useful in later life.) In each picture below, at the top is the line currently being recited, where the portion that has already been uttered in in green. My assessment is that this video is suitable for the age range 3 to 4 years. My conjecture is that this video was produced in India. I do not plan to watch it again.

Gift Idea

The common features of these games are:

• They are free.
• The are the equivalent of empty calories since they are a stultifying and pointless waste of time.

The gift idea is that these games are the answer to the question: What gift should I give to an enemy?

Final Thought

It is discouraging that computer games tend to see everything, even fruit, within a context of violence.