Bananas

Scientists are fighting to protect the hundreds of bananas and plantains people eat around the world from a blizzard of pests: insects, fungi, worms, bacteria and viruses. They're using old methods and new ones in their fight, as noted in our news story on the successful sequencing of the banana genome by French scientists. In Uganda, for example, scientists have been using conventional breeding, crossing fertile wild bananas to local bananas that are eaten. They're trying to develop resistances to banana blights such as black leaf streak disease, a.k.a.

Krupali Tejura wants a frozen banana stand in Newport Beach. No, not Dad's or Sugar 'N Spice or any of the other venerable spots around town. She wants  that  banana stand. Earlier this month, it was announced that  Netflix would promote new episodes of the revived TV comedy "Arrested Development"  by touring the show's fictitious Bluth's Original Frozen Banana stand in the United States and England. Apparently, though, the promotion doesn't include a stop in Newport, where the series takes place.

Kenneth Turan is mistaken when he implies that "Antz" is the first film to bring together Woody Allen and Sylvester Stallone ("Life Down Under," Oct. 2). That distinction goes to Allen's 1971 film, "Bananas." Allen cast the then-unknown Stallone in a bit part as a subway terrorist. WILLIAM POUNDSTONE Los Angeles

Fernando Larios eyes the stand of plantains running along one side of the Francis Avenue Community Garden in Koreatown. A large cluster of fruit, just out of arm's reach, is almost ready. “It'll be two more months,” says Larios, who has been keeping an eye on these plantains since someone poached the last cluster. Once the fruit is harvested, the entire plant will be cut down to the ground, and others will rise up, he says. Most of the plant's energy is underground, and pups will sprout up around the mother plant.

When you bring home a bunch of bananas, you'll want to store them properly so they will stay fresh for a long time. Green-tip bananas will reach their peak of ripeness if you take them out of the plastic produce bag and keep them at room temperature. This enables them to continue the ripening process and in just a few days they will be tender enough for eating. To store bananas for a longer time, keep them in the refrigerator. The peel will darken but the fruit inside will stay ripe and fresh.

Anyone who has taken the scenic drive along the 101 Freeway just north of Ventura couldn't miss them: rows and rows of lush banana plants hung thick with fruit. It was as though a bit of South America had come seaside in Southern California. Doug Richardson's small banana plantation was the only substantial planting in California--and they weren't just any bananas.

Britain's Labor government may help launch a boycott of Central American bananas to protest working conditions on the region's plantations, a spokeswoman said. The boycott could help Caribbean growers who fear a loss of sales to Britain because of a World Trade Organization rule forcing the European Union to import cheaper bananas from Central America. International Development Minister George Foulkes is to announce a plan today to promote a "fair trade" label on Caribbean bananas.

What's this about parks not being welcome in Dana Point ("Parks Have Worn Out Their Welcome," Jan. 25)? Where have I been hiding out lately? I knew it was bad news when we lost our Park and Recreation Commission. If a park is a haven for crime and violence as Councilman Mike Eggers contends, let's do something about it, Mike! Brighter lights, more police surveillance. As far as attracting "undesirable elements," a member of our Planning Commission, Carlos Olvera, thinks it's partly the NIMBY (not-in-my-back-yard)

Dole Foods Co., the world's largest producer of fresh fruit and vegetables, said it will begin selling organic bananas under the Dole name, tapping into the $6-billion organic products market. The bananas will be grown in Ecuador and Honduras on farms that have been certified as organic by U.S.-based agencies, Dole said. The company will begin selling organic bananas Feb. 1. Rival Chiquita Brands International Inc. has no current plans to sell organic bananas under its label, a spokeswoman said.

Regarding "Curse of the Forbidden Fruit" [June 14], about the superstition against bananas on sportfishing boats, not so on the yachts the late skipper Gene Grimes piloted over many years here and off Baja. He seldom, if ever, went fishing without a bowl of bananas on the galley table. His record of catching and releasing more than 70 broadbill swordfish in these waters likely will never be matched. Bill Beebe Mar Vista

Former Le Cirque and Citrus chef Rémi Lauvand has landed in downtown L.A. at a sleek new restaurant called Le Ka. For his head mixologist, the acclaimed French chef (who is cooking food from all over the world at Le Ka) has chosen South Carolina native Andrew Parish. Parish is all about expanding the relationship between food and drink, often incorporating the former into the latter. Take for example his hot banana buttered rum, which employs rich butter and mashed bananas in the service of creating a mouth-watering hot cocktail that feels very much like a meal.

Mickey Rose was a childhood friend of Woody Allen, sharing his pal's fervent enthusiasms for baseball, jazz and movies and later becoming the young filmmaker's writing partner for his early, madcap comedies "Bananas" and "Take the Money and Run. " Rose, who went on to become a television comedy writer, penning jokes and sketches for Johnny Carson, Sid Caesar and other top comedians and shows of his era, died Sunday at his home in Beverly Hills....

Banana Joe, the lovable affenpinscher who won best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York on Tuesday, has chosen Broadway for a victory lap.  The pooch was scheduled to make a cameo appearance Wednesday evening in the Broadway revival of the musical "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" at Studio 54. He was to fill in the role normally played by Macaco, the dog held by actress Stephanie J. Block in the show. Banana Joe's theater career was scheduled to last for only one performance. "Drood," which is very loosely based on the unfinished novel by Charles Dickens, is produced by the Roundabout Theatre Co. The ending is determined by an audience vote as to who is guilty.

NEW YORK -- A tiny, black affenpinscher named Banana Joe won the coveted Best in Show award at the 137th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Tuesday night, beating out more than 2,700 others for a title that guarantees canine fame, great dating and mating opportunities, and a chance to ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange. Banana Joe edged out a crowd favorite, an Old English sheepdog named Swagger. The five other finalists and their categories were a German wirehaired pointer named Oakley in the sporting group; a Portuguese water dog named Matisse in the working group; an American foxhound named Jewel in the hound group; a bichon frise named Honor in the nonsporting group; and a smooth fox terrier named Adam in the terrier group.

-- Banana Republic will launch a third capsule collection inspired by the hit television show "Mad Men" in March. The previous two collections, both popular among shoppers, were based on the early '60s "Camelot" era and crafted in collaboration with the show's costume designer Janie Bryant. They featured the floral frocks, blouses with scarf details and slim-cut suits. Now the collection will evolve with the show by transitioning into late-1960s mod fashions. Look for bold prints and colors, shift dresses with short hemlines and plaid sport coats.

When you think of a certain classic rock album released in 1967 with a bright yellow illustration of a banana on the cover, what name comes to mind: Andy Warhol or the Velvet Underground? That's one of the questions essentially at the root of a lawsuit brought by the influential band founded by Lou Reed and John Cale, which accused the Andy Warhol Foundation of Visual Arts of violating its copyright when it consented to the iconic image being used without the band's permission on a planned line of iPhone and iPad accessories.

Banana importers agreed to undertake an unprecedented monitoring program last week after unusually high pesticide residues in some tested fruit prompted California heath officials to consider issuing a health advisory for small children, state and federal officials said Wednesday. In addition to pledging to monitor every shipment of bananas entering the United States over the next 90 days, the industry will discontinue using the pesticide aldicarb on bananas.

European Union agriculture ministers adopted regulations for a new banana-import system, formally marking an end to a long-running dispute with the United States and Ecuador. The new system "signals not only the end of the banana dispute but will result in the lifting of some $200 million worth of U.S. sanctions," said EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy.

Fredrik Gertten's delight at being invited to premiere a film at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival was short-lived. The Swedish documentarian's "Bananas!*," chronicling a legal fight by Nicaraguan workers against Dole over pesticide use, would soon be embroiled in its own legal battle. Gertten and his four-employee company spent the next half-year wrangling with one of the world's largest multinationals over the right to show the film. His new documentary, "Big Boys Gone Bananas!