Comments on: Why Europeans look lazy

By: grego

grego — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:35:33 +0000

I never noticed that. Most hired outside work for most things–nothing like the DIYers in the USA.

By: Adam Greenwood

Adam Greenwood — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:53:47 +0000

I’m told that tomatoes are one of the few crops where home production is a significant part of the market.

By: Jim F.

Jim F. — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 02:30:16 +0000

Nate, did it taste good? Or was it, too, shipped from Peru?

By: Nate Oman

Nate Oman — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 21:31:45 +0000

Jim F.: I have always found it facinating that one of the things that Marlowe’s Faustus gets from his pact with the Devil is “fruit out of season.”

By: Jim F.

Jim F. — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 20:56:27 +0000

I’ll see what Mark B said and raise the fact that we demand and buy tomatoes when they aren’t in season.

If tomatoes have to come from a long way away, as we demand, then they aren’t going to start out ripe. It won’t be many months until the only choice for those in most of the U.Sand Canada. who want a fresh tomato will either have to move to the southern extremities of the U.S. Ior, for that matter, another country) or do without.

But canned tomatoes are very good for most things. That’s a way to have your tomato and eat it too when they aren’t on the vine locally. When they are on the vine locally, if you want the market to carry good tomatoes, then buy only good tomatoes. Support your local grower when it is feasible to do so.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 20:50:17 +0000

The only way to end this threadjack would be to suggest that the Europeans who engage in Tomatina don’t look all that lazy. http://gospain.about.com/od/august/ig/Pictures-of-Tomatina-Fight/index.htm

By: Mark Butler

Mark Butler — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 20:12:59 +0000

I am sure we could get better tomatoes if most of the population were willing to pay a premium for them. I imagine the problem is that perfectly ripened tomatoes have a very short window in which they must be delivered and eaten, which is a logistical problem not to be underestimated.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 19:40:35 +0000

Is there something I said, Ed, that makes you think that I believe some central planner in a Ministry of Tomatoes would do a better job than the market in providing good tomatoes for consumers?

On the other hand, for all the scorn heaped on central planners, I don’t know that a central planner bureaucrat could have done worse.

Finally, do you like the tomatoes that are available generally from the supermarket? Does anybody?

By: roland

roland — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 18:30:25 +0000

This all proves the point of the French President that European Labor Unions have a major strangle hold on the government, preventing the president from passing some much needed pro-business reform legistlation that was needed in order to stimulate the economy.

I have friends tell me that laid off workers get a over-generous 2-year severance pay package guaranteed by law.

By: John Mansfield

John Mansfield — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 17:57:25 +0000

My first week of college, we viewed "Alexandre le Bienheureux" to help us understand European laziness. Alexandre preferred carrots to tomatoes; or maybe he wanted to live the life of a carrot. I can't quite remember.