Just look at this awesome EU banana curvature regulation.

Just look at it.

Commission Regulation (EC) No 2257/94 of 16 September 1994 laying down quality standards for bananas (as amended)

Previously:

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Rick.

Each post is more full of win than the last.
wasmax

Cory,
Exactly how much of your day do you spend Google-ing “banana”?
- mdh
  
  Hey now, at least half the internet is people googling their bananas.
- AnthonyC
  
  “Exactly how much of your day do you spend Google-ing “banana”?”
  
  About this long: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=banana
  
  The rest of the time is clicking on banana-related links.
Phikus

It’s becoming a real Bananarama around here. Just look at it. I Dare you.
xaxa
Sizing is determined by:
- the length of the fruit expressed in centimetres and measured along the convex face, from the blossom end to the point where the peduncle joins the crown
- the grade, i.e. the measurement, in millimetres, of the thickness of a transverse section of the fruit between the lateral faces and the middle, perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis.
Who wrote this?

The minimum length permitted is 14 cm

Must have been a woman.
andygates

At some point Cory’s going to search ‘banana’ at BMEzine, and it won’t be the Warhol tattoos he picks…
Anonymous

http://www.sharkbanana.com/
MrWoods

My prediction is that Cory will eventually post about Oranges, thus ending the longest-running allusion to the famous knock knock joke: “Knock Knock/Who’s there?/Orange/Orange Who?/Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?”

Seriously though these posts make the other posts disappear faster – let’s bring this to a close.
Anonymous

http://www.totsroom.com/cfr-0050080.html – banana-shaped beanbag chair
Hagarack

I wonder if all these posts were about a fruit I like better, like kumquats or redcurrants or perhaps even kiwis, would I be more interested in them. I’ve always found bananas too much a of a “safe” fruit. Up there with apples and oranges in terms of banality.
- Phikus
  
  Banana Banality. There’s another band name up for grabs. ;D
Marnsten

Hey guys…I’m afraid Cory isn’t going to give this up until he feels Ray Comfort has been suitably mocked.
Anonymous

I am outraged at the fact that smaller bananas from Madeira must be sold as Class II just because they don’t fill this ridiculous 14 cm minimum requirement. They are simply a different kind, smaller but sweeter, better than the washed-down crap usually found in supermarkets across the EU. I’ll choose these minor class II bananas over gigantic tasteless Dominican Republic bananas any day.
/rant
Anonymous

I actually came here today for the banana post.
Scrolling down the page, I couldn’t find it until the last links. I felt almost disappointed.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO US, CORY?
Sorcerer Mickey

Just look at this banana-horned unicorn chaser.

Just look at it.
- nekochan
  
  http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3642/3310188712_bee278e1d7_o.jpg ?
tkdead

I’m torn. I’m in the love-to-hate camp for Cory, but these banana themed updates have been getting funnier with each absurd addition. It’s like when a heel wrestler turns babyface, but you’re cautious because he might do something terrible and break your heart.
wobblesthegoose

Just look at this banana shaped knock off of speed scrabble. Just look at it. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27225/bananagrams
WalterBillington

You should try studying this bananas law, and all the fatuous portions of legal headspinnery that came before it. Basically, the whole thing was protectionism – making sure only bananas from the right areas of the world entered the EU – but of course, that runs counter to the basic tenets of the EU, so it couldn’t be said, and we had years, years and years of more expensive bananas.

Now, I do believe, the whole thing has been trashed, and you can have any banana you decide to have. The lawyers won, you see, and that’s what drives me bananas. Makes me nuts.

Off-topic, but gotta be said: BB’s fancy new banner advertising is at least rotating through different cell phone makers – so it’s not all completely bent. And that must have been a tough negotiation with the agency – not yellow there, were you?
arikol

This is all a marketing gimmick for Cory’s new remixed book “Up and in in the Banana kingdom”

Cory?
Anonymous

Oh, not again. That regulation has been out for a few years. Now we don’t have bananas classified by unified quality standards any more. Just bananas. Which is not necessarily a good thing, because I can’t buy bananas without seeing them and still be sure that I get A-quality.

By the way: Europe has a written history for about 2k years. I’m quite sure that you’ll find a few more obscure but intersting things. Unfortunately bananas won’t play a role in them for most of the time.
Anonymous

The EU regulations for produce are not only silly, but also wasteful. If you have a funny-looking tomato, it’s /illegal/ to sell it. Even to a factory to make canned tomato. It’s a huge waste.
- Anonymous
  
  [...]If you have a funny-looking tomato, it’s /illegal/ to sell it. Even to a factory to make canned tomato. It’s a huge waste.
  
  No, it’s _not_ illegal. It’s just not “class 1″.
  
  If and when such regulations are made, the EU’s officials spend a lot of time looking at the market and labelling by average of what is allready on the market.
  
  There’s another popular story that the EU spent money on measuring penises all over the EU to determine classification for condoms. For some reason, however, you can still get “XXL”-condoms that take 15l of water and no more (should you decide to turn it into a hiking bottle) like those not labelled XXL.
Moriarty

So 1994 had 2256 more pressing matters to deal with than this? Like what?
Anonymous

Just look at this awesome banana comment.

Just look at it.
pa

A banana law.

What’s next? A banana republic?
ScottMcG

This gets funnier every day. I’m waiting for a banana seat from a 70′s bicycle.
Ratdog

You, my friend, have just gone to the next level of awesomeness.
Anonymous

The fact that there haven’t been any more banana posts since this one makes me very sad inside. :(
Ted8305

They ain’t just “listing” or “defining” standards. Naw, in the EU they be LAYING THEM DOWN.
Timothee

You’re lagging behind. The banana thing is a well-known Euromyth: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6481969.stm
Anonymous

From Wikipedia:

The countries of the European Union have traditionally imported many of their bananas from the former European island colonies of the Caribbean, paying guaranteed prices above global market rates. As of 2005, these arrangements were in the process of being withdrawn under pressure from other major trading powers, principally the United States. The withdrawal of these indirect subsidies to Caribbean producers is expected to favour the banana producers of Central America, in which American companies have an economic interest.
zio_donnie

http://www.bananaguard.com/
spike55151

These banana posts are great!
Keep ‘em coming!
mistersquid

Just look at this BoingBoing editor gone bananas. Awesome.
Baldhead

It’s gotten so that I’ll assume the next post that starts with “just look at this awesome…” is going to be about bananas and therefore ignore it (hate the things. hate em)
- mdh
  
  shorter you: “is this going to be forever”
MameDennis

Note to self: Submit video of my cat playing a banana-shaped steampunk ukulele.

(Just kidding. He actually plays bagpipes, and their tartan is really more “ironic preppy chic” than “steampunk”.)
ZippySpincycle

Cory’s posts on this topic appear to be causing a schism among BB readers.

A banana split, as it were.
- Anonymous
  
  @ZippySpincycle nice one!