This post was originally written in early 2004. This is where you can find the final conclusion as to why there is no longer a M.D.H.O.P.A.I.R. newsletter.
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peanuts
the peanut is an interesting little fruit. the peanut is fairly simple and often easy to overlook and possibly undervalue. a can of mixed nuts touts it's quality by ensuring the consumer that the percentage of peanuts is less than half of the mix, peanuts being the cheapest nut of the bunch. the peanut is a metaphor for things small or of little value. the minor cost of an item may be expressed as costing only peanuts. unwanted and trivial comments have been referred to as coming from the"peanut gallery". one galaxy visible from earth's surface has beennicknamed "snickers" because it is peanuts compared to the Milky Way. (think about it.) even disparaging remarks towards a former president use the peanut as a measure of insignificance when Jimmy Carter has been referred to as a mere "peanut farmer from Georgia" who somehow made it to the White House. but the little bean still holds a place in society in pop culture and beyond.
one of the most long lived advertising spokesmen is Planters' Mr. Peanut. the peanut is a nostalgic baseball snack still sold inthe stands. ("buy me some peanuts and cracker jack...") the peanut is nearly the final result to which the airline food service has been reduced, and let's not forget Charlie brown and the other charactersfrom the classic comic strip "Peanuts". the peanut was a portion, and sometimes the only portion, of civil war rations for the southern armies, inspiring the writing of the then popular folk tune "GooberPeas". with efforts to make the peanut a more profitable crop, a healthy alternative for the land instead of cotton, George Washington Carver found some 325 uses for the plant. not only did the peanut become a leading crop in the South but it helped to place this former slave, educator and agricultural scientist in the public eye long before the civil rights movement, as he worked withthe U.S. Department of Agriculture and southern farmers.
even the peanut sandwich spread is nearly synonymous with childhood memories in America. ¿what childhood isn't measured with a few peanutbutter sandwiches at some point in time? there are plenty of creative variants to the standard PB&J wrought during those childhood years, and nearly everyone knows what side of the issue they stand on when it comes to creamy or chunky. when someone mentions giving a little peanut butter to a household pet, it gets a chuckle out of nearly everyone because so many have been there for themselves at one time or another. we should also recognize that there are more than just anational peanut day and month, but also national peanut butter and peanut brittle days and months.
it should be apparent that the peanut does have this capacity to be both common and significant all at once. the question could be asked, ¿when is the peanut ever out of place? here is a good place to start that story.
there's that place where you wear clothes that you don't wear during the rest of the week, the background noise of daily life is subdued, and thoughts are supposed to be focused on higher topics. sometimes that place is called church. enter the peanut. i had one, right there in my pocket. not just a single seed, but a whole legume, fibrous shell and all, and i was going to put it to some use.
seeing a friend who i thought would enjoy a little gift, i held my fist straight out, knuckles pointing towards the ceiling in the understood sign of "i have a surprise for you" and waited for the reciprocal sign of the receiving hand. the signs were given, a peanut was passed, and i left to the next meeting without a verbal exchange of any sort. not then, not later that day, or week or month or ever. the peanut itself was all the message there was. not that there hasn't been a verbal recognition later on as to the exchange of ownership of a little nut, but that is all that has been said and it was probably wasn't even that day.
now, ¿what is better than one peanut? ¿could it be any more obvious? more peanuts.
soon enough peanuts were being left behind on my visits to the apartment of the poor recipient of that first peanut. there were peanuts in the candy jar, a peanut taped to the front window, and eventhe title caption for a "Peanuts" cartoon for the front door. a peanut is easy to draw on a dry erase board, a simple blob w/ an odd little hourglass shape. a small jar of peanut butter was left next tothe couch. i sang "Goober Peas" every so often when they'd let me get one of their guitars in my hands. i even dropped of a belated birthday present of government issue dry roasted peanuts, straight from an MRE (Meals Ready to Eat).
the web is a wonderful accomplice. it's just so easy to cut and paste information about peanuts, George Washington Carver and even a few recipes and send them on their way. an email from the receiver of all these peanuts that announced her new email address was a fortunate little mishap that left me with a copy the addresses in her address book. not only did it prove to be an educational opportunity on the cultural value of the peanut for many people, but it was also a lessonon the use of BCC. soon enough, all those who had a mailbox large enough to receive a small MP3 got to hear Burl Ives sing "GooberPeas". that was followed by a couple of newsletters that, at least in part, discussed the merits of the peanut.
the best part about the email snafu was that now other people were asking my friend "why peanuts?" and with a little nudge, a younger sibling would sing his rendition of goober peas. i'm not even present and peanuts find their way into the conversation. ¿isn't that great?
after all this, the reason for the first or any of the subsequent peanuts has not been given. ¿are you sure you really want to know?
it was the end of christmas break. each roommate came back to school with his load of new clothes and other christmas gifts along with a fewthings that each mother thinks her child might need at school. one ofthe roommates came with a very odd selection: a huge bag, the bulk cereal variety, of peanuts still in their shells. ¿why would anyone's mother buy them a huge bag of peanuts to take back to school? they take up a lot of space and aren't very convenient. besides the production of the larger pieces of shell when trying to reach the seeds, cracking the shells open results in a fallout of little fibers and powdery flakes.
there it was; a huge bag of peanuts bought at random by someone's mom and left on the kitchen counter. soon enough they were being eaten, even though they weren't the most convenient. one sunday morning a few found their way into my pocket for the walk to church. (outside the dust and flakes are free to fall where they may.) i estimated one peanut too many; the extra peanut.
yes, ladies and gentlemen, rounds of entertainment through the peanut that lasted nearly two years can be attributed to the simple fact that they were just there on the counter one day. you could say there was no reason at all, other than the fact that i liked peanuts enough to eat them when they were free for the taking and i knew a few random facts and how to abuse the web. harassment via peanut for no reason at all.
"I hate television. I hate it as much as I hate peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts."
- Orson Welles (1915-1985)
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