The price of bananas

Many moons ago (and not an insignificant number of years), we lived in Galveston, Texas. We were half a block from the Gulf and could practically see the ships as they unloaded. Well, okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it wouldn't have been a problem to do it. Nonetheless, the price of bananas in the Galveston grocery stores was the same as what my mother was paying 350 miles to the north: 19 cents per pound.

This always irritated me. Why shouldn't I pay a lot less since all they were doing was, metaphorically, rolling a crate across the street and putting it on the shelves?

No one asked me and the price, no matter where we lived or visited, stayed consistent.

Then over the last few years, it rose. 25, 30, 35--3 pounds for a dollar. It had finally settled in the mid-40s when gasoline prices shot up. The first commodity victim I noticed was the price of bananas. They immediately--overnight, if not quicker!--went to 59-64 cents a pound.

It's not like you can buy and store them. Nor is it possible to grow them here. No pick-ur-own banana farms in this neck of the woods. Want bananas--pay up!

It does make me wonder what they're going for in Galveston. If I knew anyone who lived there, I'd call.

To catch up:

No sooner do I get so disgusted with the number of Viagra spams I'm receiving and decide to start counting, than the well dries up. (This is not a complaint.) Must have been a lot of rush orders at the end of May.

June 1: 28 spam emails
June 2: 0 (not a typo and probably a first)
June 3: 3

On another front:

The fourth season of Meerkat Manor begins Friday night on Animal Planet at 8 pm CDT. Now that matriarch Flower is gone, the Whiskers have divided in two, with rival sisters at the helms. It doesn't get more human than this, does it?

Thank goodness they don't eat bananas. They'd starve.