During WWII Pilot Albert C. Ball once flew a group of academics to the south pacific where they trained US troops how to survive in the region.
Ball said of a UW professor in the group.
I questioned a Banana, whether I should eat it, and I really got a kick out of this fella, he really was alive, he said, ‘why, you know that’s the best ripeness, right where that is.’ And he took it and showed me, and peeled and took good bites of it himself, and at that he said, ‘that’s very good shape.’ And you know us funny civilized people, we think of a thing as black- there must be something wrong with it. But anyway, I enjoyed that, I’ve always remembered it.
You can learn more in the Albert Ball papers at UW’s American Heritage Center.