FRESH AIR Americans consume more bananas than apples and oranges combined. Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, gives us a primer on the expansive history — and the endangered future — of this seedless, sexless fruit. Koeppel traces the ubiquitous yellow fruit back to the Garden of Eden, where, he argues, it, not the apple, was the “forbidden fruit” that Eve offered Adam. In the 20th century, he examines the United Fruit Company’s maneuvering in the “banana republics” of Central America, and warns that the banana’s unique reproductive system — each new […]

CHUBB ROCK: Pissed Jeans, Johnny Brendas, Friday[Photos by JUSTIN ROMAN/CLICK TO ENLARGE]

NEW YORK TIMES: Senator Barack Obama adapted one of his signature arguments — that his oratory amounts to more than inspiring words — from speeches given by Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts during his 2006 campaign. At a Democratic Party dinner Saturday in Wisconsin, Mr. Obama, of Illinois, responded to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who has criticized him for delivering smooth speeches but says they do not amount to solutions to the nation’s problems, by ticking through a string of historic references. “Don’t tell me words don’t matter,” Mr. Obama said, to applause. “ ‘I have a […]

LOS ANGLES TIMES: The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced the recall of 143 million pounds of raw and frozen beef from a troubled Chino meat-packing company, deeming it unfit for human consumption because of lapses in required inspections. Agriculture Department officials called this the largest beef recall in the United States, surpassing the ban in 1999 of 35 million pounds of ready-to-eat meat. The USDA said there was “a remote probability of adverse health consequences from the use of the product.”Problems at the plant first went public following the release of a video (SEE BELOW)showing treatment of animals at […]