Washington, the state that has given us the Space Needle, the Seahawks, and Starbucks Coffee. Why, it is even home to the Banana Museum. The WHAT? That’s what I said, a banana museum. Before your mind wanders too far, read on and you too will be amazed at what you will learn.

The site is The Washington Banana Museum. Its curator is Ann Mitchell Lovell. Ann has assembled close to 4,000 items, a melange of artifacts, folk art and other cultural oddities devoted to the world’s perfect fruit. Assembled by a longtime scholar of banana consciousness, it features a compendium of whimsical and serious representations of the #1-selling fruit in the United States. In other words, it is more than just a prop for a comedian to do a pratfall on the stage. There are labels and labels, there is artwork, there are pictures and advertising galore. It makes one wonder how such an important part of our food chain has become so ignored. Ann wondered that as well, and this museum is the result.

I don’t know why, but as I sit here writing this, I hear a Paul Simon song in my mind, “Slip Sliddin’ Away.” It must be just my imagination, but it is late at night, and the mind plays funny thing with you. The Warp-o-Meter gives this site a rating of 7.5.

[tags]washington banana museum,ann mitchell lovell,banana consciousness,yellow food,fruit[/tags]