OPENING POMEGRANATES

Yesterday a friend gave me THREE pomegranates.  ("Gave" is an interesting term for me to use because she explained, "Nobody else will take these.")  

I had never liked pomegranates and thought they were more bother than they were worth, but I asked another friend, who loves pomegranates, to give an in-person demonstration of easy-opening techniques.  He sent the YouTube demonstration:

Some time ago, I had read that Biblical scholars believed that the "apple" in the Garden Of Eden was actually a pomegranate because apples were not indigenous in Mesopotamia.  In a discussion with a friend who believes in the literal translation of the Bible,  I mentioned the apple/pomegranate quandary.  I quipped that I could understand the difficulty in the Garden because of the difficulty in opening and eating pomegranates.  I also mentioned that the problem wasn't the apple on the tree, but the PAIR on the ground, but she doesn't share my love of puns.

I love Sandro Botticelli's painting of "The Madonna Of The Pomegranate", and pomegranates are a traditional food at Rosh Hashana, but I still DON'T like pomegranates!

The French word for pomegranate is GRENADE; the syrup GRENADINE was originally made only with pomegranates from GRENADA, but the most fascinating tidbit to me is that HAND GRENADES are called that because grenades resemble pomegranates. Oh, those French have a way with words.