On Sun, 17 Oct 2004 21:25:14 UTC, Tim Tyler opined:

Stan Goodman wrote or quoted:
On Sun, 17 Oct 2004 07:53:43 UTC, Tim Tyler opined:
Stan Goodman wrote or quoted:

Why is it difficult to understand that a vegetable is something that is
neither animal nor mineral [...]

I'm not sure how to understand your answers below, so (at the risk of being
accused of not having a sense of humor, I do it straight:

Because of mushrooms and bacteria ;-)

Mushrooms are certainly vegetables: they are life, so they aren't mineral;
they aren't animal. What's left? [...]

Briefly:

Eubacteria, Archaea, Protists, Fungi - and possibly viruses (as well
as plants).

This kind of obfuscation borders on the malicious. The thread started with a
query from someone who was confused about whether he should call e.g.
tomatoes vegetables or fruits. The answer was pretty straightforward. You
can surround it with fog as much as you want.

Fungi (e.g.) are plants, but not Flowering Plants. I covered that.
I pointed out that the animal/vegetable boundary is fuzzy at the level of
microorganisms.

For me, this thread is closed. Have fun.

--
Stan Goodman
Qiryat Tiv'on
Israel


Saddam is gone. Ceterum, censeo Arafat esse delendam.