Bannana* (for Banana, etc.)

Last June, Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times entitled “Yes, We Will Have No Bananas.” In it, he discusses the political and economic circumstances that allowed this exotic fruit to become an inexpensive staple of the American diet. But more interesting–and alarming–is the fact that bananas might someday disappear from our tables. It seems that the single Cavendish variety cultivated and sold worldwide today is vulnerable to an emerging strain of the disease that killed off Gros Michel, the banana of our great-grandparents’ generation.

Bannana* is a low-probability typo with 7 entries in OhioLINK. One is for the musical group “Bannana Farmers” and is definitely not an error. The remainder are song titles, at least one of which also looks to be correct.

(Bananas by Steve Hopson, from Wikimedia Commons)

Deb Kulczak