Banana Day 1999
Dr. Adler's Speech

What can I possibly do to follow Ram the Banana and Rammy? I suppose I must forge ahead with my Banana Day Address and let the banana speak for itself!

Consider the banana. This apparently lowly fruit, is nothing less than a star! Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Just for a start, the banana is the subject of no less than 75 memorable hit songs. You will no doubt recall "Yes, We Have No Bananas," movingly rendered in the 1920s by Enoch Light & His Charleston City All Stars. And then there is "I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones" -- surely you remember this Hoosier Hot Shots number. More recently we have "Loving You Has Made Me Bananas," a chart topper by Guy Marks, and Madonna's masterpiece, "I'm Going Bananas." Gosh, the banana hits don't stop.

And don't forget bananas in the movies! More often than you can imagine, it all hinges on a banana. At the end of It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Ethel Merman slips on -- you guessed it -- a banana peel. In Modern Times, a machine dramatically and symbolically feeds -- yes -- a banana to Charlie Chaplin. In Abbott and Costello's Hit the Ice, Costello shockingly finds a banana in his pocket instead of a gun! Can you imagine? Then in the 1954 film Top Banana we find yet another hit song: "If You Want to Be Top Banana You Have to Start at the Bottom of the Bunch." I sure wish I could hum a few bars for you.

Anything you could ever want to know about bananas, you could find out for yourself in a gripping book called The Complete Book of Bananas, by W. O. Lessard. But don't worry, I can tell you, right here today, more than you ever wanted to know about bananas! And I probably will.

You will no doubt find these banana tidbits fascinating:

• Bananas have been cultivated since before recorded history.
• Today there are about 500 known varieties of edible bananas.
• In 1516, Friar Tomas de Berlanga first introduced bananas to the Western Hemisphere. Let's hear it for Friar Tomas!
• A so-called banana tree is really just a big plant -- a very big plant, up to 30 feet tall.
• When bananas are harvested, the entire plant is cut down, and new plants grow from the roots.
• In the 3rd century B.C., Roman historian Pliny wrote about wise men in India who lived on bananas -- hence the fruit's Latin name, musa sapientum, meaning "fruit of the wise men."
• American per capita consumption of bananas is about 24 pounds a year -- beating out apples by 3 pounds! Yea, bananas!
• Bananas, which are 99.5 percent fat free, supply 100 percent of the daily potassium requirement!

I could continue, you might desperately want me to continue, but I will stop here. Go read about bananas yourself.

But before I close this notable -- if I do say so myself -- Banana Day Address, let me quote from a lovely and touching poem, called "The Little Banana Peel," written in 1885 by R. J. Burdette:

The Little Banana Peel
Like a bar of the beaten gold
I gleam in the summer sun;
I am little, I know, but I think I can throw
A man that will weigh a ton.
I send out no challenges bold
I blow no vaunting horn,
But foolish is he who treadeth on me;
He'll wish he had ne'er been born.

As you go about the day, remember poet Burdette's wise warning. But above all, join together for an afternoon of fun and fellowship! Today is officially West Chester University Banana Day -- the third in the short but noble history of Banana Day. Let today remind us all to make every single time together here on campus an occasion of unity, involvement, and good health. Now hear me, everyone: Go bananas!

- Dr. Madeline Wing Adler

Sources:
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~vjenkins/banana.html
http://www.turbana.com/banahist.htm