I suspect, from Avocado.org:

And Cook's Thesaurus: Avocadoes:

__________________
0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 ...

Ah, very good! Hass is the best variety, IMO, and now that I think about it, Mexican avocados are quite smooth-skinned; definitely not Hass, though Mexican producers may have adopted them by now.

I have lived in La Habra Heights. I used to walk around the neighborhood and pick avocados (with permission, of course).

__________________
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

I used to live in an Italian neighborhood where during the summer you'd get chased by zucchinis.

__________________
A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

Ah yes, the Cucurbitaceae Family---you're lucky to have escaped!

Actually, my understanding is that, reports to the contrary notwithstanding, the Hass is from Pasadena originally. My mother lives three blocks north of Pasadena, and there are (Hass) avocado trees in her yard.

__________________
Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

I'll take my chances with death.

Well, there are Hass avocado trees in yards all over SoCal. There are probably a dozen in yards on my street here (in Brea), and I have had plenty of customers in the area offer me fresh picked Hass from their giant trees (Hacienda Heights, Rowlands Heights, La Habra, La Habra Heights, Fullerton, Yorba Linda, etc.) So I am not sure that having trees in the yard is proof that the line started there. On the other hand, I have no stake in where the Hass started. It does seem like the commonly accepted idea is that the all existing Hass come from the "mother tree." Is there any reason to doubt this?

__________________
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Oh, I'm not saying that my mother's trees are evidence of where Hass originated; it really should have been a separate paragraph, now I look at it. I have, however, read at least three different claims for the origin of the Hass avocado, all including their own claims of where the mother tree is. What do I know? I never thought about it until the avocado episode of Good Eats--which says Pasadena for origin, incidentally.

__________________
Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Hass originally sold most of his produce in Pasadena. I wonder if that adds to any confusion?

__________________
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Entirely possible. And it's also possible that I just want Pasadena to be known for more than the Rose Bowl, since it's the closest place to my hometown that people have heard of. (I'm from Altadena.)

__________________
Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

I always think of dairy when I think of Altadena.

That reminds me. There is this restaurant in Pasadena, on Colorado that has all you can eat tacos. We call it Taco-Bar, but I don't remember its real name. Ever heard of such a thing?

__________________
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

What stretch of Colorado? (I grew up calling Pasadena City College "the University of Colorado Boulevard," because so many of my classmates ended up there after high school and stayed for longer than two years.)

__________________
Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

I think it might be La Fiesta Grande between Madison and El Molino. It has probably been at least 5 years since I ate there.

__________________
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Jeez. I know the area right there pretty well--I used to take the 260 down Los Robles to high school. Can't place the restaurant, though. There are an awful lot of little Mexican restaurants around there! (They took out the mall after I left, and I've not been back since they put in its replacement, so I'm not even sure what it is. How weird is that?)

__________________
Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Well, there's CalTech, The Tournament of Roses, and Jan & Dean's "...terror of Colorado Boulevard..."
(I know what ye'r thinkn'...)

My new copy of "Cook's Illustrated" arrived today and what did I find but this item from Mary Dawn Gaubatz (I am not making this up!) of Missoula, Montana.

"1. Dip the corner of a paper towel in vegetable oil. Rub the oiled towel over the sticker and let sit for about five minutes.
2. Peel off the offending sticker without damaging the fruit."

__________________
"I want to write about people I love, and put them into a fictional world spun out of my own mind, not the world we actually have, because the world we actually have does not meet my standards." Philip K. Dick
No matter how strong, or brave, or pure of heart you may be; sometimes the dragon wins!

"The Tournament of Roses" is just the official name for what we from that area mean when we say "the Rose Bowl." We don't really mean the stadium. (I do, I'll admit, get up early every New Year's Day to watch the parade on HGTV. It's not the same without Bob and Stefanie, though.) Still. It's a little frustrating when you have to continually identify not even your hometown but the town next to your hometown as "the Rose Bowl place."

Anyway. Stickers.

Seriously, would you wait five minutes to get the stupid sticker off?

__________________
Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

I've just upped my estimate from 10 hours to 600 hours of the rest of my life peeling stickers.

Apparently, if you don't like removing the label, you can just eat it:

(From Radio-Canada's L'épicerie at http://www.radio-canada.ca/actualite...u2_14223.shtml)

"...si par mégarde, vous croquez dans l’étiquette adhésive, sachez qu’elle n’est pas toxique. Elle est constituée de vrai papier, et la colle est faite d’une solution d’eau, mélangée à du sucre ou de l’amidon."

"...if you inadvertently eat the label, know that it is not toxic. It's made of paper, and the adhesive is made of a water solution mixed with sugar or starch."

__________________
"WARNING: Being launched into space is hazardous."--Lonewulf

Triplebrick