I thought this letter on the subject was refreshingly jargon-free and easy to follow:
I was intrigued by the term "lemon", a sourish citrus fruit. So, a deal gone sour is a lemon (usually for the buyer)? Typically, a car full of defects is a lemon. I found the explanation below, titled "The Origin of 'Lemon Law' is Murky" helpful:
http://www.lemonjustice.com/blog/?p=469
So, when is a lemon (the fruit) a lemon (a sour deal)? I ask this "cheem" (profound) question because I bought a bunch of green bananas last weekend -- it has been three days since -- and not one of the bananas has ripened:
The colour reproduction of the picture is not quite right... they really are still green! I had even put them inside a brown paper bag but, nope, these bananas are still lemons (as I write this blog entry). Some parts of the banana skins (the other side of the comb) are starting to turn spotty-black. So, should I go back to the supermarket and demand a new bunch? Headline: Consumer goes bananas in test of new lemon law.
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Actually, I did own a lemon of a car, way back in the early 1980s:
The second-hand car (these days they call them "pre-loved"... hahahaha!!) gave me endless mechanical problems and it once skidded on a dry road. And it wasn't even yellow. A white lemon.
Probably the green bananas are meant to be green. Here's a link http://latinfood.about.com/od/plantains-roots-tubers/a/green-bananas.htm
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, the first time I came across edible green bananas was during BMT, during lunch at the cookhouse. I was wary but even more wary of the fierce Orderly Sergeants who had warned us about wasting food. So I gingerly tried them (after peeling them, of course) and they were surprisingly good