Grapes

Two stories related to grapes.

First is The Political Madman's excellent discovery of a story in the New York Times about an Iowa farmer who makes more money off of two acres of grapes than he did planting 1000 acres of corn and raising 3000 head of hogs. I completely agree with the Madman's analysis.

You know, Republicans in 1988 gave Michael Dukakis shit for suggesting to Iowa farmers that they should diversify into profitable crops like Belgian Endive, but he was right. How right was he? Read this. And don't get me started on industrial hemp.

Second, from the feeds is this story from the Cedar Rapids Gazette about a Carroll school stupidertendent who has banned the book "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" from high school classes because of "inappropriate material" for students.

At first I thought it might be the suicide of Gilbert Grape's father, but I'm betting that it's the sex involved. This is from some bible thumpin' movie reviewin' web site:

Gilbert has an affair with a married woman who openly pursues him. While no on-screen sexual intercourse takes place, it is implied. Also, unconventional sex is briefly implied once. When her husband suddenly dies of a heart attack, the widow leaves town. Her character serves no purpose other than to tarnish the otherwise wholesome character of Gilbert.

The book isn't banned from the school's library, but the stupidertendent just removed it from the course's curriculum. None of this ever makes any sense, but why should it?