Memoirs of the Yalta Conference (Feb. 1945) read at
http://www.americanheritage.com/xml/...5_3_feat_1.xml
that US President Roosevelt made a martini for Stalin and:
"said apologetically that a good martini really should have a twist of
lemon.

"At six o'clock the following morning, when I came down to the main entrance
hall, I was astonished to find, just outside the door to the anteroom, a
huge lemon tree-I counted some 200 pieces of fruit on it-which Stalin had
ordered flown in from his native Georgia so the President could serve his
martinis with a twist."

What are the chances that a lemon tree bearing
200 ripe fruit could be found in Georgia (or anywhere
else in the USSR) in the month of February? Can
lemons bear fruit in a hothouse in any month we choose?

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)