Rogues' Gallery

The Frigidaire Gang. They're a shady lot. We suspect they are guilty of all sorts of crimes and misdemeanors.

But perhaps that is because of some unfair profiling on our part.

Could it be the mustache? It seems to make anyone sporting it look like they are up to something.

Our littlest suspect. Just one year old today. 

Guilty of rendering grownups mute or turning them into babbling idiots solely by being totally too cute for words.

Next up. The little sister. Need we say more?

And her sidekick. 

Together they possess combinations of sibling superpowers able to drive otherwise sane and rational parents to the city limits of Crazytown. 

That is of course on the rare occasions when they are not being  model citizens.

And finally, the fun-uncle-in-training. No actual infractions of the law yet, but we're keeping an eye on him. 

Don't let the disarming smile behind the stache fool you. 

He is already scheming, and practicing the art of getting-little-beings-to-adore-him-even-though-they-don't-really-know-why-they-do on his roommates' pets, and small woodland creatures that have no sense.

We suspect bacon has a lot to do with it.

Take away the facial hair and it is a very normal assemblage.

So who is real criminal here? Could it be NDL herself for the crime of messing with photos (there is precedent - see above teething ring mischief that we had nothing to do with officer) and acquiring the accoutrements of hipster culture? 

Guilty as charged. Highly entertained. And not one bit sorry.

Spooky Spirits

Target knows grownups like treats too.

Not too far from the candy corn, snack-sized Snickers bars, and dreaded Bit-O-Honey, is a carefully selected grouping of Halloween-themed wines. Mostly blood red of course.

That 5:00-7:00 trick-or-treating time can get awfully long without a little sustenance so stock up. 

Grab some cheese and crackers too. 

 Oh, and don't forget the candy. Although it's been done...raiding the pantry for cans of corn and the like is not all that popular with the kids.

Frig People

You know 'em. You love 'em. 

We've all got 'em and we couldn't get by without 'em.

They're not all stuck up here. Not on our old 18 Cubic Footer. It would take an industrial-grade, multiple-door model to even begin to display the whole crew of folks who are there for us in body and in spirit.

They turn up whenever there is a birthday, a first day of school, a call from the school nurse, a graduation, 

a wedding, a flat tire, a child who needs tending or soothing or distracting, when a dog needs to be let out or a package signed for or our plants watered, when a toast must be made or when you need a loaf of bread to make toast. They save you when you are clinging to the end of the parenting rope and celebrate with you when your kid accomplishes something pretty amazing. They'll loan you anything from from a crib to a wheelchair, from a cup of sugar to a bottle of wine. 

They know what needs to be done and they pitch in and do it.

We could make a long list of feats and favors, kindnesses and gifts that we have been blessed with from each and every individual you see here and many more in our lives who, although their photos are not seen every time we go for the ice cream, are our "frig people" none the less. 

They are our family, our friends, our neighbors, our mentors, our "village".

Who are your frig people? What have they done for you?

Are you as thankful for yours as we are for ours? 

Could that be possible?

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 

Worth the Wait

Last winter we bought some beautiful strawberries at the grocery store and discovered that they were hard as rocks, had solid white hearts, and the taste? what taste?

Someone told us they were really pretty good. Being our usual agreeable self we did not argue.

But we should have. Those were not good berries.

These are good berries.

Summer has come and now we are reminded of what a strawberry is really meant to be like. 

Red all the way through, best the very day it is picked, juicy, 

and full of ecstasy-producing flavor without need for sugar, chocolate coating, 

or any other distractions from its amazing strawberryness.

It is even a good thing that summer berries do not keep for more than a day or two. 

The same breeding that enables a strawberry to be transported for hundreds or thousands of miles and keep for weeks in the frig also takes away all that makes strawberries divinely desirable to eat.

See that juice in the bottom of the bowl. Just try to get one of those plastic January pretend strawberries to ooze even a drop of it. And if you see us in the produce aisle next winter reaching for a plastic clam-shell full of out-of -season zombie berries, please remind us that if we take them home we will be disappointed. 

Very, very disappointed.

Banana Ballot

We missed it. The 2010 Chiquita Banana Sticker Contest.




And the winners are...here.




Maybe next year.

Not Just for Tuesdays Anymore

Bananas. Available for your enjoyment all seven days of the week.










1927 Bauerlein

Billboard Bananas

Not sure when Miss Chiquita started promoting video games, but she should stop that and stick with what she is good at, which is touting her namesake fruit's benefits and virtues.

We grew up with the Chiquita banana music and lyrics looping around inside our heads. My apologies if it gets stuck there again, but here it is, one of the most enduring jingles ever:

"I'm Chiquita banana and I've come to say - Bananas have to ripen in a certain way- When they are fleck'd with brown and have a golden hue - Bananas taste the best and are best for you - You can put them in a salad - You can put them in a pie-aye - Any way you want to eat them - It's impossible to beat them - But, bananas like the climate of the very, very tropical equator - So you should never put bananas in the refrigerator."

Music © 1945 Shawnee Press Inc. under license to Chiquita Brands International, Inc.

Both the jingle and Miss Chiquita were introduced to educate consumers about how to store and eat bananas which were, in 1944, an exotic new produce offering. Miss Chiquita was drawn by Dik Browne the creator of the Campbell Soup Kids and Hagar the Horrible. She was depicted as an animated banana and made many appearances in person and on popular radio shows, movies, and commercials to promote her product. In 1987 she was redrawn by the artist who created the Pink Panther to appear as the human Miss Chiquita that her public imagined her to be.

You can hear the original Chiquita Jingle and a newer version promoting the healthy aspects of banana eating here.

You can learn more about the wonderful Miss Chiquita here.