Ever since I was old enough to feed myself I have been peeling bananas just one way. Some call it the monkey way others the upside down method. I peel the banana from the tip while I hold the banana by its handle.
You might think I've lost it or perhaps I'm high.
This topic has triggered a lot of heated debates among my friends at the old workplace. They believe that it's so dysfunctional the way I peel my banana and that no one else does it my way, until one day there it was, all yellow and right smack in the middle of Broadway. And guess what - the banana was split from the tip and peeled my way! There you go, follow my lead!
Call it the monkey way but since they are the undisputed experts in this department I don't mind being associated with them. I did a little digging and the good people at Wikipedia referred to the song Mellow Yellow by Donovan as rumored to have been about smoking dried banana skins believed to be hallucinogenic. Of the many drugs with unpronounceable names, right under our nose is bananadine, can you imagine? Tripping on bananas? Or did they just make this up?
Another odd practice of mine is reading the last page first.
I have to admit to reading any magazine backwards because I like the last page best but I'm not exactly an end -reader and I don't read the last page of a book first. It just seems natural for me. I pick and choose what I read first in a newspaper or magazine, I read piecemeal and I hop all over the place.
Check out this advice column by Jeffrey Goldberg found in the last page of The Atlantic, "What's Your Problem?" and tell me if that isn't hilarious. Read about the troubled sperm donor in the July/August issue, I think it's a riot.
Other noteworthy last pages that aim at humor:
The Awesome Column by Joel Stein (Time )
The Awesome Column by Joel Stein (Time )
The Last Page (Smithsonian)
Findings (Harper's Magazine)
I bet you there's a few more out there and I leave it up to you to find out.
I love the 60's but no I have not been doping myself with banana peels. This is my natural state of mind - bizarre.
