Marionberry denied Oregon honour

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

A proposal to name the marionberry as the official berry of the US west coast state of Oregon has been scuppered by a grower of a rival berry type.

The Oregonian newspaper said the resolution was removed from the state legislature's agenda at the request of a blackberry farmer, Larry Duyck.

Raspberry, blueberry and strawberry growers had all supported the proposal.

But Mr Duyck was worried that the marionberry would be given an unfair edge over his type of blackberries.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7909243.stm

[hamerfan]

1. To heck with the others!

As a lifelong berry lover, Marionberry will always get the top prize in my book! Love it, love it, love it. Yummy goodness!
hamerfan

[Tom Kitten]

2. how ironic

Salem, the state capital, is the seat of Marion County, which the berry is named after. As an aside, Himalayan blackberries are perhaps the biggest pest foliage in the state. If we needed to have an official state berry (and I'm not saying we do) why not just choose the salmonberry? At least it's native to the region...

[leftyclimber]

7. Marionberries were bred/hybridized at OSU way back when

don't remember from which berries.

That was the original argument for the marionberry, IIRC.

I think fights of the official state berry/fruit/all that stuff are kind of silly. Of course, I have an opinion on the issue anyway. ;) Blackberries are all over the place and salmonberries are all over the PNW (although they are another great, lesser-known berry ... mmmm). Marionberries are uniquely Oregonian (and are even yummier than blackberries and salmonberries, IMO). So I like the idea of the marionberry as the state berry, although if they wanted to shut down the commercial growers' arguments on both sides they could go to the salmonberry and make both sides mad because neither one won. :)

I sincerely doubt that the blackberry grower mentioned in the original article is going to lose sales over what berry is the state berry. I don't think most of the rest of the country is going to be paying that much attention.

[jimmyflint]

14. another vote for the salmonberry

[MrModerate]

3. Maybe it's just because I'm a dour old fogy with an undeveloped sense of fun . . .

But controversies surrounding honors rendered to small edible fruits doesn't quite meet my criteria for "news."

Sorry. Besides, I prefer canned peaches.

[dipsydoodle]

5. I suppose you could be right

given that the issue hasn't cost trillions of dollars, thousands of people haven't died , nobody appears to have lied to the American public............

I like canned peaches too. :)

[JTFrog]

4. Duyck?

He could drop the Y and become the U of O mascot.

But dropping the U seems more appropriate here.


Doesn't seem much like LBN. :shrug:

[DRoseDARs]

6. I didn't know Norm Coleman grew blackberries in Oregon.

All the other berries seem to think Marion ought to be fairly declared the winner. Is nothing safe from his petulant stalling tactics? :shrug:

[salguine]

8. With everything that's going on, they're debating "official berries"? Shouldn't the

citizenry throw rocks at the State House or something, just as a kind of "ahem"?

[whoneedstickets]

9. Funny, I immediately thought of Marion Barry...

and wondered why they named a fruit after him..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Barry

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10. lol!

:rofl:

[cascadiance]

11. Hah, I was just thinking the same thing and wondered if that played into the decision!

[LWolf]

12. State berry or not,

this berry lover ranks marionberries at the top of all the delicious berries we grow. ;)

[cascadiance]

13. Another reason perhaps why marionberry is viewed as "tainted" and not voted for...

From:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3778408

...
It is the first time ACORN and MoveOn.org have joined forces to target a lawmaker from either party. The organizations say that they are actively seeking out residents in the districts of Reps. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.), Baron Hill (D-Ind.), Marion Berry (D-Ark.), and Tim Holden (D-Pa.) who have lost their homes, so they can appear in TV ads asking their congressmen why they voted against the bill.
...

So not only do we have a tainted ex-mayor of DC, but a tained congress critter of Arkansas too!

Poor marionberries! They are being smeared! :)