Word: fruitness
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...height of the apple panic that the Chilean fruit phobia began. The first phone call to the U.S. embassy in Santiago was followed by a more serious one on March 9. The caller said he had read in a Santiago paper that his threat was being treated as a hoax. Be warned, he said, it was no hoax. Fifty FDA inspectors were dispatched to the Almeria Star as it docked in Philadelphia. They set up tables along the pier and began examining 1,200 cases of grapes for softness, discoloration and the telltale welds caused by punctures. By Sunday...
That the cyanide was still present in the fruit after the two-week boat trip was disturbing. Acid in grapes quickly decomposes the poison, so the original amount injected could have been much greater. After an early-Monday meeting, Young decided to pull all Chilean fruit off the market...
...that point a generalized fear of fruit swept the country. National Restaurant Association spokesman Jeffrey Prince said, "We learned to our relief that Granny Smith apples were not treated with Alar, only to learn to our horror that they were included in the Chilean ban. It seems you can't win for losing." Health-conscious restaurants that had banished artery-clogging red meat, butter, eggs and cheese from their menus now had to remove the fruit plate...
Grocery-store managers had to cope first with customers who did not want red apples, then with customers who did not want red grapes and then with customers who did not want any fruit at all. The country's largest chains, including Sloan's, Publix and Jewel, stopped selling fruit from Chile. Grocers had to come up with a returns policy like their department-store counterparts. At most establishments it was money back, no questions asked...
...fruit frenzy also taps into the media's fascination with harm with a personal angle. In October 1987 baby Jessica McClure, trapped in a well, grabbed the attention of the global village, garnering the financial resources it took to save her. A heartwarming rescue. Baby Jessica was replaced months later by the icebound whales, and the year was punctuated by children needing organ transplants. Fruit, on the second shelf of the refrigerator, makes good copy...