Frida and her Freudian Monkey / Banana Therapy

This is how I spent a good part of my day. 

 Hours upon hours trying to make a monkey that looked like a monkey.  

My monkey insisted on looking like a man.  

I finally gave up and decided it is what it is. 

 Hey, this is no sexist statement.

 "Yes! We Have No Bananas" is the title of a novelty song by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn from the 1922 Broadway revue Make It Snappy. Sung by Eddie Cantor in the revue, the song became a major hit in 1923 (placing No. 1 for five weeks) when it was recorded by Billy Jones, Arthur Hall, Irving Kaufman, and others. It was covered later by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra, , Spike Jones & His City Slickers, and many more. 

 Yes! We Have No Bananas

Songwriters: Frank Silver, Irving Conn

There's a fruit store on our street
It's run by a Greek
And he keeps good things to eat But you should hear him speak!
When you ask him anything, he never answers "no"
He just "yes"es you to death, and as he takes your dough He tells you
"Yes, we have no bananas
We have-a no bananas today
We've string beans, and onions
Cabashes, and scallions,
And all sorts of fruit and say
We have an old fashioned tomato
A Long Island potato But yes, we have no bananas
We have no bananas today

Business got so good for him that he wrote home today,
"Send me Pete and Nick and Jim; I need help right away"
When he got them in the store, there was fun, you bet
Someone asked for "sparrow grass" and then the whole quartet
All answered "Yes, we have no bananas
We have-a no bananas today
Just try those coconuts
Those wall-nuts and doughnuts
There ain't many nuts like they
We'll sell you two kinds of red herring,
Dark brown, and ball-bearing
But yes, we have no bananas
We have no bananas today"

He, he, he, he, ha, ha, ha whatta you laugh at?
You gotta soup or pie?
Yes, I don't think we got soup or pie
You gotta coconut pie?
Yes, I don't think we got coconut pie
Well I'll have one cup a coffee
We gotta no coffee
Then watta you got?
I got a banana!
Oh you've got a banana!

Yes, we gotta no banana, No banana, No banana, I tell you we gotta no banana today
I sella you no banana
Hey, Mary Anna, you gotta... gotta no banana?
Why this man, he's no believe-a what I say… no… he no believe me…
Now whatta you wanta mister? You wanna buy twelve for a quarter?
Well, just a one of a look, I'm gonna call for my daughter
Hey, Mary Anna You gotta piana
Yes, a banana, no
Yes, we gotta no bananas today!

The new English "clark" (a.k.a. "clerk"):
Yes, we are very sorry to inform you
That we are entirely out of the fruit in question
The afore-mentioned vegetable Bearing the cognomen "Banana"
We might induce you to accept a substitute less desirable,
But that is not the policy at this internationally famous green grocery
I should say not. No no no no no no no
But may we suggest that you sample our five o'clock tea
Which we feel certain will tempt your pallet?
However we regret that after a diligent search
Of the premises By our entire staff
We can positively affirm without fear of contradiction
That our raspberries are delicious; really delicious
Very delicious But we have no bananas today.

 A banana  shortage caused by a banana blight in Brazil is usually suggested as the inspiration for the song. The town of Lynbrook on Long Island, New York, claims the songwriters composed it there and that the catchphrase  "Yes! We have no bananas" was coined by Jimmy Costas, a local Greek American greengrocer.  However, a 1923 article in the Chicago Tribune  stated that the phrase originated in Chicago  in 1920.  Cartoonist Thomas A. Dorgan  (1877–1929) is also credited with inventing and/or popularizing the phrase.

The song was the theme of the Outdoor Relief protests in Belfast in 1932. These were a unique example of Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland  protesting together, and the song was used because it was one of the few non-sectarian songs that both communities knew. The song lent its title to a book about the depression in Belfast.

The term has been resurrected on many occasions, including in Britain during World War II,  when the British Government banned the importing of bananas for an entire five years. Shop owners put signs stating "Yes, we have no bananas" in their shop windows in keeping with the war spirit.

The song also appeared in the popular Archie Comics  and was mentioned in the 1939 film Only Angels Have Wings and the 1954 movie Sabrina.  It appears as a leit motif in The Comic, often to underscore serious moments in the life of the film's protagonist (played by Dick Van Dyke). In The English Patient, a few verses are sung as a joke. The song was also subject to parody in The Muppet Show, sung by various anthropomorphic fruits and vegetables. A German version, "Ausgerechnet Bananen", was featured in Billy Wilder's 1961 slapstick comedy One, Two, Three, played by an over-the-hill dance band at a drab East Berlin hotel bar. In the 1970s, Harry Chapin used this phrase in the chorus to his song "30,000 Pounds of Bananas". 

Thirty Thousand Pounds of Bananas

The Incident:

 On March 18, 1965, a 35-year-old truck driver,  Gene Seski, was on his way to deliver a load of bananas  to Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Seski, an employee of Fred Carpentier, who operated a small truck line in Scranton, was returning from the boat piers at Weehawken, NewJersey where he picked up his load. While the exact information is somewhat lost in time, the load was clearly destined for the "wholesale block" on the western edge of Lackawanna Avenue in Scranton, thein Scranton, the local A&P Warehouse or to Halem Hazzouri Bananas, the premier banana purveyor in the area at the time. Seski was driving a 1950s Brockway diesel truck tractor with a 35-foot semi-trailer and was headed down Rt. 307 when he suddenly lost control. The "two-mile" descent extends from Lake Scranton down to the bottom of Moosic Street, a 500-foot drop in elevation in little more than a mile, where the truck eventually crashed at the southwest corner of Moosic St and S. Irving Ave. For some reason, the truck cruised into Scranton at about ninety miles-per-hour, sideswiping a number of cars before it crashed, killing the driver and spilling bananas everywhere when the rig came to rest. The road was then closed for cleanup as Johnson's Towing Company helped out in the recovery. Trucks over 21,000 lb (9,500 kg) are no longer allowed to travel that route.

Song Content:

 A young truck-driver is driving "just after dark" during his "second job" to deliver a load of bananas to Scranton, which is described as a "coal-scarred city where children play without despair in back-yard slag piles," the population of which consumes about 30,000 pounds of bananas daily. While approaching Scranton, he passes a sign he "should have seen" reading: "Shift to low gear / a fifty dollar fine my friend" because he is too busy thinking about seeing his wife after his trip. He begins to travel down the "two-mile drop" road to the bottom of the hill. Suddenly, the truck begins to go faster down the hill and driver tries to apply the brakes, only to discover they aren't working. He says, "Christ!" who ironically is "the only Man who could save him now" as the load of bananas push against the truck causing it to pick up speed. Cruising into Scranton at "about ninety miles-per-hour", he almost hits a passing bus. The driver then prays twice to God to make the event all a dream before he "sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars / clipped off thirteen telephone poles / hit two houses, bruised eight trees / and Blue-Crossed seven people." He is decapitated in the accident and 400 yards of the hill is smeared with his load of bananas.

The song's epilogue tells the story how Chapin first heard of the event coming on Greyhound bus out of Scranton some months later. An old man sitting next to Chapin implores him to imagine "30,000 pounds of mashed bananas."