Mr. Pollan’s book is about how plant’s have evolved to satisfy our needs and how by doing that we have satisfied their needs. He starts with the apple tree and soon starts discussing John Chapman, a gentleman that most of us know better as Johnny Appleseed. Johnny was a bit of a nut. For example, he once threw away his shoe to punish his foot for stepping on a worm. But Johnny was much more than just a nut. Johnny used to go to the cider mills in Western Pennsylvania and get the seeds from the part of the apple that was being thrown away. Apple seeds have a little bit of cyanide in them which makes them very bitter so cider mills are careful about always throwing them away. Johnny would then take these seeds to where no one lived but where he thought people would soon be moving. He would plant his seeds and grow apple trees. Five years later when people moved into the area (Johnny was very good at guessing which areas would become popular) he would sell his trees. The law at the time required that anyone claiming land had to grow fifty apple trees to show that they were serious about living on the land. Johnny did so well with his apple tree business that he died a very wealthy man.

But here’s the part that Disney never mentions. Apple trees grown from seeds produce very sour fruit that is almost always inedible. Henry David Thoreau wrote, “[the apples] were sour enough to set a squirrel’s teeth on edge and make a jay scream.” The apples that we get in the store are always grown by grafting. So if Johnny’s apples were inedible what did people do with them? They made them into hard cider. Yep, as Mr. Pollan writes, “Johnny Appleseed was bringing the gift of alcohol to the frontier.” And that is the real story of Johnny Appleseed.

The alternate text for those who missed it: “Mr. Rogers projected an air of genuine, unwavering, almost saintly pure-hearted decency. But when you look deeper, at the person behind the image … that’s exactly what you find there, too. He’s exactly what he appears to be.”

This is from Wikipedia’s article on Fred Rogers:

During the 1997 Daytime Emmys, the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Rogers. The following is an excerpt from Esquire Magazine’s coverage of the gala, written by Tom Junod:

Mister Rogers went onstage to accept the award — and there, in front of all the soap opera stars and talk show sinceratrons, in front of all the jutting man-tanned jaws and jutting saltwater bosoms, he made his small bow and said into the microphone, “All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are. Ten seconds of silence.”

And then he lifted his wrist, looked at the audience, looked at his watch, and said, ‘I’ll watch the time.” There was, at first, a small whoop from the crowd, a giddy, strangled hiccup of laughter, as people realized that he wasn’t kidding, that Mister Rogers was not some convenient eunuch, but rather a man, an authority figure who actually expected them to do what he asked. And so they did. One second, two seconds, seven seconds — and now the jaws clenched, and the bosoms heaved, and the mascara ran, and the tears fell upon the beglittered gathering like rain leaking down a crystal chandelier. And Mister Rogers finally looked up from his watch and said softly “May God be with you,” to all his vanquished children.

And here is one of their other planes that I also thought was funny.

Here is a link to more pictures.

Casablanca – “Here’s looking at you, kid.” “We’ll always have Paris.” And about 5 other unforgettable lines. Humprey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, and Paul Henreid. How can anyone not love this movie? The most amazing thing about the film is that they had no idea how it was going to end while they were filming. The writers worked frantically to finish the script before the filming. And the result is one of the greatest movies of all time.

Clockwork Orange – “No time for the old in-out, love, I’ve just come to read the meter.” A brilliant movie based on a brilliant book (Kubrik left out the last chapter of the book because it was left out of the American edition of the book). Malcolm McDowell should have been nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. Stanley Kubrik was nominated but lost to the director of The French Connection. Beth loves this movie too. She did her college essay about the book.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – “When you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk.” Starring Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, and Lee Van Cleef, directed by Sergio Leone with an incredible soundtrack by Ennio Morricone.

Field of Dreams – “If you build it, he will come.” Three Oscar nominations including Best Picture. The only Kevin Costner movie I can sit through. Ray Liotta and James Earl Jones are both fantastic. Just try not to feel good at the end of that movie.

A Foreign Affair – “If you give a hungry man a loaf of bread, that’s democracy. If you leave the wrapper on, that’s imperialism.” Billy Wilder’s funny movie about post-war Berlin. Marlene Deitrich plays the sexy German and Jean Arthur plays the Congresswoman from Iowa who gets drunk and sings, “I-O-way, I-O-way. That’s where the tall corn grows.” John Lund plays the Captain caught between the two of them. I loved this movie the first time I saw it.

Runners up: Duck Soup, Maltese Falcon, Memento, Apocalypse Now, and Bringing Up Baby.

So what movies are on your list?

On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study

The Citizenship Test

I scored a 95% because I couldn’t remember how many amendments there are to the Constitution.

In this day in history: 1536: Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, beheaded for alleged adultery.