Love Apples
On 26 September 1820, Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson supposedly proved that tomatoes weren’t poisonous by eating several on the steps of the courthouse in Salem, New Jersey.
Although Johnson existed, the story itself is unlikely to be true and the detail appears to primarily come from a 1949 CBS series “You Are There” episode 79: “Colonel Johnson Eats the Love Apple”.
You can listen to this wonderful time-travelling radio show on Blubrry – You Are There 79 – Colonel Johnson Eats the Love Apple
Johnson’s speech:
The time will come when this luscious, scarlet apple…will form the foundation of a great garden industry, and will be … eaten, and enjoyed as an edible food…and to help speed that enlightened day, to prove that it will not strike you dead – I am going to eat one right now!
And he ate that tomato, despite this warning from his physician:
It is possible that he will foam and froth at the mouth and fall dead on the spot. He may double over with appendicitis. Or if the tomato is overripe, if it has been exposed to the sun, then he may be exposing himself to brain fever. If he should survive this then there is still the risk that the skin will stick to his stomach and may cause cancer!
Such a lovely story – I wish it could be true.
What is true is that we have another wonderful set of Saturday Scenes, all taken on September 26th!
- Amsterdam
- Givatayim
- Sydney
- Worcester
- Washington
- Surrey
- California
- Cairo
- Italy
- La Cala de Mijas
- London
- Rorschach
- London
- Reading
- Inkpen
- French Pyrenees
- Zürich
- Zürich
- M4, Mereoak
- London
- Tuebach
- Birmingham
- Sulham Woods, Berks
- Carmarthenshire
No throwing tomatoes at our participants:
- apgphoto
- NevilleFenn
- RAFAirman
- adhon
- dreamsthedream
- Sithefire
- michrueg
- pixelfreund
- BadlyWiredDog
- sparc
- sarahfenn
- Korwhai
- Vaxanta
- jmorby
- akaSylvia
- tradingnothing
- embee
- StacyJMT
- blue_cat_online
- drewbenn
- Pewari
- Dramagirl
- elibrody
- ingridf
Saturday Scenes is a great way to see the world from someone else’s point of view! Taking part is easy:
1. Take a photograph on a Saturday
2. Send it to @SatScenes on Twitter
3. Wait for the webpage to get updated
4. Oooh and aah over all the great submissions from all over the world!
So take a photograph this weekend and send it to @Satscenes!