You know you're famous when…
Category: Weirdness
Posted on: December 17, 2007 2:19 PM, by PZ Myers
…people send you their weird and suggestively shaped fruit and vegetables. This reminds me of something:
Thanks, Ema! It even smells nice and lemony.
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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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Comments
I, for one, welcome our new plant overlords.
Posted by: Anon | December 17, 2007 2:22 PM
Put it on the top of your squidmas tree.
Posted by: danley | December 17, 2007 2:23 PM
What is that? A squash?
Posted by: shiftlessbum | December 17, 2007 2:32 PM
shiftlessbum: Its a lemon.
Posted by: silence | December 17, 2007 2:34 PM
More about this citrus fruit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha's_hand
Posted by: silence | December 17, 2007 2:36 PM
Hmm. Would be interesting to see if some critical gene malfunctioned, or this was some class of infection, the later of which does some odd things to fruit, but never, from my experience, causing the internal segmentation to be expressed externally...
Posted by: Kagehi | December 17, 2007 2:38 PM
Egad, someone has been trying transgenic experiments on crossing lemons and seafood! The horror!
I can see it now:
Oh, what will I have? Hmm. The octo-lemon looks good but I think I'll order the butter-lemon-lobsters, please.
Posted by: Diego | December 17, 2007 2:38 PM
Merry Squidmas!
May we greet our squid overlords on 1-18-09!
http://www.cloverfieldmovie.com/
There's a chance it could be Cthulhu.
Posted by: Stevie_C | December 17, 2007 2:38 PM
Sorry. 1-18-08. This January.
Slusho zoom!
Posted by: Stevie_C | December 17, 2007 2:40 PM
When life hands you lemons, PZ, drop to your knees and prepare to be torn asunder.
Posted by: Dan | December 17, 2007 2:48 PM
God damn it, I saw one of those in the grocery store the other day and thought about doing exactly this. Curse neglected opportunities.
Posted by: Tyler DiPietro | December 17, 2007 2:57 PM
You just know there's an ER doctor somewhere who's removed one of these from someone's heinie.
"Honestly Doc, I was just changing a lightbulb above the produce section when I slipped and fell."
Posted by: Brownian, OM | December 17, 2007 2:58 PM
http://lolthulhu.com/
while I'm on this train of thought...
Posted by: Stevie_C | December 17, 2007 3:00 PM
If this miracle isn't proof of the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster I don't what is. The debate is over and the followers of Scientism and the Atheist Religion should hang their heads in shame at this irrefutable evidence.
Posted by: noodlesoup | December 17, 2007 3:12 PM
That is truly sublime. Or should I say, sublemon.
Posted by: Kseniya | December 17, 2007 3:23 PM
Proof positive that Cthulhu will someday soon when the stars are right rise up and destroy us all!
Posted by: anti-nonsense | December 17, 2007 3:26 PM
I'm surprised the Pope's recent comments on atheism haven't been Pharyngulated.
Posted by: Shawn Wilkinson | December 17, 2007 3:32 PM
I probably should use search features and look at article dates before speaking...
*wallows in personal stupidity*
Posted by: Shawn Wilkinson | December 17, 2007 3:34 PM
I see the error of my atheistic ways now. Let's all bow down and worship that... lemony thing.
And just in time for Cthulhumas as well! (Warning! Warning! Shameless self-promotion detected. Self-destruct initiated.)
Posted by: Ted D | December 17, 2007 3:51 PM
Keep an eye on the celeriac too.
Posted by: barney | December 17, 2007 4:03 PM
PZ, I came across this new website that I'm sure you'll get a kick out of.
This vegidasquid would be perfect:
http://www.thispeanutlookslikeaduck.com
Posted by: Brodie | December 17, 2007 4:03 PM
@Stevie_C
Here's hoping that it's a Cthulu flick and not a giant whale movie.
Posted by: David | December 17, 2007 5:51 PM
ttttttttttttttttooooooooooo ccccccccccooooooooooooooolllll
btw enlighten this ignorant fool - does the concept of Cthulhu
mock the irrational fear of humans for invertebrates ?
Posted by: astrolieber | December 17, 2007 6:23 PM
Cthulhu fhtagn.
Posted by: John Done | December 17, 2007 6:50 PM
I am not afraid to admit it. I laughed.
Posted by: Dan | December 17, 2007 7:22 PM
Heh! Sorry for being so forward, but I saw it in the store and I was commanded by the Squidspirit to send it to you as a Squidmas offering.
Posted by: ema | December 17, 2007 7:24 PM
It's a "Buddha's Hand" citrus. It's used in cooking because the pith isn't bitter, as it is in most citrus. Because of that, you don't have to be as careful when you zest it AND, because of the non-bitter pith, you can incorporate the entire peel in dishes. Whereas with lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit, etc., if you're not careful and get that nasty pith in your dish. For example, if I'd have gotten the lemon zest in my aioli last night, it'd have ruined my scallops with lemon-aioli dressing. But I didn't.
Instead I stupidly left the aioli near the stove when I was saute'ing the scallops and broke the sauce, which looked gross and became lumpy. Can't win them all.
Posted by: Moses | December 17, 2007 7:28 PM
They say the monster is "original". Also there may be giant sea lice or something that the giant monster sheds and they also terrorize Manhattan. As well as some sort of virus that makes people explode. It may have something to do with Slusho.
Posted by: Steve_C | December 17, 2007 8:07 PM
For some reason--the citrus/seafood juxtaposition?--this reminds me of the classic old National Lampoon Radio Hour production of Dostoevsky's "The Idiot," in which, following the oh-so-sophisticated Alistair-Cooke-style introduction, the titular character (played, I realize in hindsight, by the then-unknown Bill Murray) yells, "Everybody get out of here, there's a lobster loose! Oh, my god, it's loose! Cover yourselves in hot butter, and carry lemons just in case!" etc.
Well, it was damn funny on the radio. If you were stoned at the time.
ahem.
Hey, that's one funny-looking fruit!
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | December 17, 2007 8:09 PM
The explanation is simple; it's a case of a squid virus infecting a vegetable.
Posted by: William Geoghegan | December 17, 2007 9:49 PM
Just think: If you lived in Fresno you could have a whole tree of those.
OK, OK, waiting for quiet here.
I see them in Bay Area nurseries too, but I haven't seen one growing in anyone's yard here yet. And they do smell good, don't they? Scent up the house before you use them in a nice squid-and-lemon-zest dish. I bet it would make an interesting simple syrup or flavored vodka. With the right container you could leave the fruit whole in the vodka and out it on display.
Or you could just worship it for the holidays.
Posted by: ronsullivan@speakeasy.net | December 17, 2007 10:55 PM
I suppose you COULD grow them in Fresno, but I've lived in the 'No for 14 years and had never seen a "Buddha's Hand" until about a year ago. It was in the Produce (sorry P.Z., not the Seafood) section of Whole Foods and was going for 8-9 bucks a pop! Somehow I don't think they're grown locally.
BTW how did Fresno get into the conversation anyway?
Posted by: Ego, Egoing, Egone | December 18, 2007 12:16 AM
They've featured Buddha's Hands on Iron Chef America. Truly a weird and wonderful looking citrus!
Posted by: Elayne Riggs | December 18, 2007 1:48 AM
BTW how did Fresno get into the conversation anyway?
I don't know, but as I live in Fresno if any Pharyngulans happen to be in the area, you can (in the spirit of the season) have a beer on yours truly, as that's my neck of the woods.
epigene13@hotmail.com
Posted by: Scott Hatfield, OM | December 18, 2007 2:34 AM
Non-bitter pith, you say?
Hmm, I bet that would make some mean Limoncello.
Nummy!
Posted by: Katrina | December 18, 2007 9:43 AM
This is one of the things I love about Texas.
We have creationists coming out of the woodwork and sewers, but we also have Herman E. Butt and his supermarkets. The markets are more demurely labeled "H.E.B" or, in yuppiville, Central Market.
Kathryn and I found a bin of those things in Central Market Saturday night. You need a Central Market up there, P.Z.
Need a recipe?
http://www.sanfranciscofoodie.com/scraps/buddhasHand.htm
Posted by: Ed Darrell | December 18, 2007 10:04 AM
#31--
By "right container", I assume you mean the appropriate ground-glass-stoppered specimen jar, with off-center typewritten paper label, reading "Foetal Cthulhu" with a collection date and location. As the fruit fades and the jar gathers a coating of dust, it just looks better. Eventually, visitors to your laboratory... er, house... will be shocked by its appearance, and then even more shocked when you take a swig of the formaldehyde...
Posted by: Anon | December 18, 2007 11:34 AM
But can you teach it to play guitar?
http://www.geocities.co.jp.nyud.net/Playtown/4937/models/tako.htm
Posted by: Lassi Hippeläinen | December 18, 2007 11:51 AM
Probably like heike crabs, are artifially selected by humans to evolve/exist, for resemblance to Buddha's hand/fingers...
Posted by: quantum | December 18, 2007 9:49 PM