KA-BOOM: the Schwarzenegger and melon story

Two interesting but unrelated stories are going around the newspapers – 1) millions (okay, scores) of melons in China are self-detonating thanks to hormone injections (perhaps implants would have been safer), and 2) the self-detonating antics of Arnold Schwarzenegger (who again has also probably had too many hormone injections at some point).

Reports have come in that chinese farmers have been injecting their melons with steroids to make them grow bigger (what IS with this global obsession with size?)... and like just the Governator, things have literally begun to burst at the seams.

Whether it is Schwarzenegger husbands or Watermelon husbandry – good things can quickly turn bad if you are careless.

Reports from Beijing are that over-ripe watermelons are bursting in their fields in eastern China. Xinhua News Agency reported that this farming disaster has occurred across 115 acres of melon farmland in the city of Danyang in the Jiangsu province.

It is suspected that an overdose of the growth chemical forchlorfenuron, coupled with heavy rainfall after a drought in the area has resulted in this unprecedented (and exploding) phenomenon. Healthy watermelon prices in the past year had prompted many farmers in the area to jump into the market. It was learnt that all of those with the exploding fruit were first time users of the growth accelerator.

Here's another piece of useless trivia – apparently use of forchlorfenuron in fruit is safe and can be effective if used properly; it is used in the US on kiwi-fruit and grape. Which in a way provides a fair idea of the size of fruit this chemical can be associated with safely – not one of the fruits mentioned are even near the size of a melon.

A "melon" size omission?

Which ironically brings us to the size of the recent admission of a faux pas by the former California governor, one time box-office action superstar, and Kennedy clan 'can't-be-anymore.' Seriously Arnie, the maid?!

The man really had it all. He was rich; he was famous; and he had political influence. The macho man was once famously quoted as saying that three things had made him successful a) coming to America, b) working his butt off, and c) marrying a Kennedy. Now he can really only count on only two.

Both stories, while completed unrelated, share the same moral – don't put things where they don't belong. Whether it is injecting hormones that don't belong in the seed or injecting seeds that don't belong in the hormone, it can all prove hazardous in the end.

Farmers in China and former governors in California have quite the weekend ahead to think about what they have done. Recovering from their mistakes might not be that easy to get over.

In a way the two stories enlist upon a Talatism truth – there is never any improving on 'what is' if it also means cheating a little.