posted
I was watching Utah Edu Network last night, and I had never heard this before. Apparently there was a protective tariff on fruit so the tomato growers (this was a long time ago, I didn't catch the date) tried to get there wares designated as fruit. But the men in black ruled that they are veggies. I guess it became a matter of sweetness.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
As a long-time collector of interesting but otherwise useless information, I remember reading about this case. Weren't some of the arguments leading to its legal definition as a vegetable related to how tomatoes are used? That is, it was argued they are used more like a vegetable than a fruit. Like in salads, soups, main dishes and such.
Still a strange ruling since the scientific evidence was a slam-dunk.
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Hmm... Maybe that's why Venus has no moons. It swallowed them all, like the littler potted things do here on earth.
Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Funny story: Someone once told me that all vegetables don't have seeds (or all fruits or something) that's why they are what they are. I then had to demonstrate a great number of seed bearing vegetables and fruits. *sigh*
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Teshi- the biological definition of a fruit is that it is a ripe ovary, typically containing seeds. Vegetables are any other part of a plant: root, stem, leaf etc. Oddly, Potatoes are a stem and not a root. I also think I've been told that the fleshy part of strawberries is also not the actual fruit, because the seeds are located on the outside of it.
So basically, Bob the tomato and Larry the cucumber are not really Veggies. The Asparagus family are the only actual Veggies in Bumblyburg.
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They're trying to teach the moral lessons, not the scientific ones.
Either that, or they don't want to discriminate against the vegetable-like fruits and are therefore diversifying.
Posts: 1056 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I think the only lesson here is that judicial office is best suited to those who are horticulturally challenged.
Posts: 85 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Actually, Ryan, my personal favorite from the Supremes is Buck v Bell, which gave gave the constitutional seal of approval to the compulsory sterilization of an estimated 70,000 Americans under eugenics laws. (Personally, I think the official estimate is low.) Just got back from North Carolina where they're discussing reparations/compensation to surviving victims of sterilization. Like a few other states, North Carolina kept sterilizing people into the 1970s, although not at the same pace as they were in the 30s and 40s.
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Actually, there is no strict scientific definition of a vegetable. Basically, a vegetable is whatever people say it is.
Posts: 1041 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote: Basically, a vegetable is whatever people say it is.
Well, I think it's more defined by how it's used, which is slightly different. But yeah, there are all kinds of things we consider vegetables that fit some (other) botanical category. Mushrooms, for example.
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