good morning Hank it's Wednesday I'm on
my way to deliver some pizza miss merch
to people who live in Indianapolis just
for the sake of efficiency did you know
that it cost about four dollars and
fifty cents to ship a t-shirt from one
part of Indianapolis to a different part
of Indianapolis and it cost about five
dollars and fifty cents to ship a
t-shirt from one part of Indianapolis to
Singapore it's partly because
International shipping rates are decided
by a secret cabal independent of actual
transportation costs but that's not what
this video is about this video is about
pineapples so there's an entire episode
of my podcast the antipas interviewed
about putting pineapple on pizza but
just to give you the highlight pineapple
pizza was invented in 1962 in Canada by
a Greek immigrant who was inspired by
Chinese cuisine to put a South American
food on an Italian dish whatever you
think of pineapple on pizza in terms of
taste as a food it is peak Anthropocene
there are pineapple pizzas that contain
ingredients from three or even four
different continents there are
individual pizzas that have seen more of
the world than I ever will hold on I
have to go get a haircut I have made my
first delivery she was not home but
Christa I hope you enjoy your poster the
thing that gets me about pineapples
though is how much rich people
worshipped them only a couple hundred
years ago like having regular access to
pineapples was the 18th century rich
person's version of owning a space
exploration startup or something the
reason you see pineapples in so many old
still life paintings is that rich people
loved to brag about their pineapples and
they were very expensive like a single
pineapple in the US or Europe could cost
the equivalent of ten thousand US
dollars in today's money $10,000 for a
pineapple and not the kind under the sea
in which you can reside either so
pineapples ended up becoming such a
symbol of wealth that they were
embroidered onto foot stools and
sculpted onto silver tables and built
atop buildings all right I'm at my
second stop delivery to accomplished he
was so nice
so the expense was partly due to
pineapples being very hard to grow in
Europe because they thrive in tropical
climates and the story of the pineapple
is in many ways the story of the
Columbian Exchange almost all the
pineapples eaten in Europe in the 16th
17th and 18th centuries were grown by
colonized or enslaved people and almost
all the wealth generated by the
pineapple trade ended up with colonizers
pineapples were eventually grown in
Europe although never in large
quantities in fact my favorite pineapple
painting is this one which features the
English gardener John Rose delivering
the first pineapple ever grown in
England to King Charles the second I
just
the king's body language is like I don't
need that pineapple I'm the king of
England but then his hand is like gimme
the pineapple Louis the 15th of France
loved pineapples as did Catherine the
Great of Russia and King Ferdinand of
Spain was purportedly the first person
to taste the pineapple on European soil
back in 1496 an observer wrote the most
invincible King Ferdinand relates that
he has eaten another fruit brought from
those countries it is like a pine nut in
foreman color covered in scales and
firmer than a melon its flavor excels
all other fruits all right time for my
next painting delivery thanks for being
so nice Megan and good luck at school
the u.s. is first president George
Washington was also a big pineapple fan
he only left the North American mainland
once in his life to visit Barbados when
he was 19 and he tasted many new foods
while he was there including avocados
but he reported quote none pleases my
tastes as does the pine so if we were to
be visited by rich people from 18th
century Europe or North America the
question might not be why are you
putting pineapple on pizza the question
might be why aren't you putting
pineapple on everything y'all can get
pineapples at the grocery store any day
of the week for $3 how do you resist
gorging yourself to death on those
prickly sweet miracles I have to go make
my final delivery not home but then I
hope you enjoy your shirt and your PIN
if you want to learn much more about
pineapple on pizza there's a link in the
doobly-doo to the anthropocene reviewed
also if you want to express your
pineapple pizza opinions we have these
wonderful pins which like all of this
amazingness is only available during
pizza miss and only at dftba.com Hank I
will see you tomorrow