You say tomato

I'm pretty sure that a trip to Kroger doesn't count as a tourist activity. However, after all the things that I have done this week, my Kroger check-out experience has been the most interesting.

I stopped into the Kroger on Broad St. this morning to get a few groceries. When I got to the checkout lines, I was frustrated to find that only one was open (this is a Richmond phenomenon, I think - every other place that I have lived actually hires cashiers for their grocery stores). The line was pretty long and every person in front of me had filled their car to the top and then some. I'm not a big fan of the self checkout because I tend to be quite slow, but I decided that today was the day to try again. I put a bag of tomatoes on the scale, clicked 'fruits' and searched, but to no avail. Apparently, Kroger lists tomatoes as a vegetable. Seeing as the fact that a tomato is a fruit is the only thing I can remember from science class, I was a bit taken aback. Do Richmonders really think that tomatoes are vegetables?

Because I get fixated on things like this, I decided to check it out with the help of Google. What I learned makes me even more puzzled:

1. Biologically, a tomato is a fruit (one point for me!)
2. Legally, a tomato is a vegetable (one point for the supreme court!)

I have to say, I find it discouraging that when science tells us one thing, the legal system can turn around and say "nope, you're wrong, and now we're going to pass a law about it."

Thank you Richmond Kroger for teaching me the difference between science and law, fruit and vegetable. For more information, visit the websites listed below.

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutother/tomato?view=uk
http://www.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=question143.htm&url=http://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch8.html