Word: banana
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There's something inherently smirk-inducing about a trade dispute over bananas. You've seen it in the papers in headlines like BANANA SPLIT or GOING BANANAS. But Clark Davis isn't laughing. One day the quality-assurance engineer was contentedly playing in the basement of his Wexford, Pa., home with his N-gauge model railroad--three lines spread over 36 sq. ft. of diorama, styled after turn-of-the-century Europe. The next day, Davis, 66, heard from his supplier of German-made Fleischman engines that not only could the price be doubling but the supplier's hobby shop...
...City and you are likely to be greeted by one or more store executives, who as a result of the store's new Ambassador Program have to spend at least two hours a week welcoming customers. Buy merchandise worth more than $100 during any weekend this holiday season at Banana Republic's main branch in San Francisco and the store will provide you with a lift home. Want to avoid the hassle of Christmas-gift buying altogether? Seattle-based Nordstrom's will give you a personal shopper, who will make selections while you sit in comfort and watch...
...telling the truth when I say I was not pleased that the off-yellow banana I bought last week bore a bright yellow sticker bearing the ABC logo along with the ostensibly ironic legend TV. ZERO CALORIES. I'm no food purist, and I know bananas are supposed to have stickers. But they're supposed to say chiquita, and that makes sense. Chiquita produces bananas. ABC produces the pasty mashed potato that is Dharma & Greg...
...long ago took hold on such improbable places as the fenders of racing cars and the insides of matchbook covers. The fact that logos and promotions now bloom on the uniforms of professional athletes, in the blinking screens of Internet data and even on the skin of the sad banana ought to be no surprise...
...stubble and humans who fill their cities to bursting, ads may simply exhaust the very resource that keeps them alive. That resource, in this case, is the goodwill of consumers. As any endangered animal can attest, what follows is extinction. For the dodo, that's a tragedy. For the banana sticker, it would be another thing entirely...