Gary wrote:
On 10/24/04 3:43 PM, in article
, "Janet Baraclough.."
wrote:
The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains
these
words:
Janet Baraclough.. wrote:
[...]
I talked to a biologist friend who believed something like this:
I
was able to show her the composted evidence that it wasn't true.
She
said she'd got the impression from finding undecayed orange peel
on
mountains: perhaps it lasts longer when not exposed to more usual
conditions.
Very scientific of her. Was the undecayed peel datestamped? :-)
Ah, yes Janet....good for you to pick up on on that! g...almost a
vbg Gary
Yeah, yeah! She got all the p-taking she needed from me, thank you!
You've made me want to spring to her defence, now (though as the head
of a comprehensive where the parents would scare the daylights out of
me, never mind the kids, she can look after herself). Left exposed on
the surface, orange peel _does_ hang about longer than some material,
especially if treated with fungicide.
An old lady I knew way back had a pill-box made of the two halves of
an orange peel: it looked just like leather. Try that with a
banana-skin! Perhaps these bygone Italian souvenirs were the origin
of the myth.
Mike.