Subject
Re: Transparent Things query (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
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I suspect oranges are "centenarian" because they are soft and thus no
threat to one's dental plates (and Nabokov had to know all about that,
having gotten his dental plates at a relatively early age). My own father
is a good example of fruits and age. He used to be a 5-apples-a-day eater
but not any more; now that he is in his seventies he eats predominantly
oranges and tangerines. Also T. S. Eliot's J. Alfred Prufrock comes to mind
"I grow old... I grow old.../I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers
rolled./ Shall I part my hair behind?/ Do I dare to eat a peach?" Only if
it's a very ripe one, one presumes.
Galya Diment
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I suspect oranges are "centenarian" because they are soft and thus no
threat to one's dental plates (and Nabokov had to know all about that,
having gotten his dental plates at a relatively early age). My own father
is a good example of fruits and age. He used to be a 5-apples-a-day eater
but not any more; now that he is in his seventies he eats predominantly
oranges and tangerines. Also T. S. Eliot's J. Alfred Prufrock comes to mind
"I grow old... I grow old.../I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers
rolled./ Shall I part my hair behind?/ Do I dare to eat a peach?" Only if
it's a very ripe one, one presumes.
Galya Diment