----- Original Message -----
From:
d*@horticulturist.com
To: a*@mobot.org
Sent: Saturday, June 01, 2002 10:18
PM
Subject: aroids (?) in the news !
This reminds me of a GREAT George Carlin act on
TV this AM, where George is commenting on all the sometimes-stupid
'safeguards' we are subjected to by the government agencies---he comments-- '
What ever happened to 'survival of the fittest, thinning of the
herd??? The stupid kid who swallowed too many glass marbles
did not grow up to father even MORE stupid kids!" Sad but
true. I mean, we can not even teach our kids to eat gel
candy??? Wow!
I don`t only smell my aroids, Derek, I cook and then eat the
hell out of several genera!!
(Note that I specified 'cook first'--- I KNOW that there is
someone out there who may have survived the eating of the glass marbles, but
who will NOT survive chewing into a raw Xanthosoma or Colocasia
!!)
Cheers,
Julius
>>The Florida Agriculture Commissioner has
banned the sale of a gel candy containing "conjac" The gel is said not
to dissolve at body temperatures and thus presents a hazard to children who
swallow it whole.
Is this one of the starches from an
amorphophallus? Or perhaps a more generic name in the Pacific for something
from an underground storage organ?
Anyway, the obvious behaviour pattern for us
should be to enjoy the olfactory delights of our plants, but to avoid sucking
on bits of them. Derek
