Crystal balls. The dregs left behind in a cup of tea. A groundhog's shadow—or lack thereof. All these are thought to, in some way or another, predict the future, earthbound elements with otherworldly powers. Well, it’s now time to add a banana to that cadre because it seems the starchy yellow fruit was able to correctly predict the sex of the royal baby.
It all began earlier today, in what was then morning in England, when Kate Middleton was admitted into the private Lindo Wing of St Mary's Paddington after going into labor for her third child. The couple had remained publicly ignorant regarding the sex of their unborn baby. With no concrete evidence to turn to, and full of anticipation for the newest member of the Royal Family, one British TV host turned to the supernatural in search of information. She turned to the very prescient fruit.
Holly Willoughby, who helms the morning talk show This Morning, consulted what she calls her psychic banana as she waited for news of the baby’s sex. “It is important to ask the banana the most important question of the day: is she going to have a boy or a girl?” Willoughby said. Then she indicated how the psychic banana works: After you ask it a question, you cut off the bottom tip of the fruit to reveal a small brown shape. “If it’s a dot it’s a no, if it’s a Y it’s a yes.”
Hmm. Seems easy enough. So she asked her question (“Is she going to have a boy?”) and cut into the banana. Sure enough, there it was, a tiny Y. “It’s a yes—I said that. It’s a boy!” Willoughby celebrated. Little did she know, at that point at least, that her prediction would come true—even if she has had success with the test before. A bit later the Royal Family announced that Kate, indeed, did give birth to a baby boy. Sheer coincidence or magic fruit? I’ll leave that for you to decide.
Do you believe in the great power of the psychic banana? Tell us what you think in the comments.
Valerio is a freelance food writer, editor, researcher and cook. He grew up in his parent's Italian restaurants covered in pizza flour and drinking a Shirley Temple a day. Since, he's worked as a cheesemonger in New York City and a paella instructor in Barcelona. He now lives in Berlin, Germany where he's most likely to be found eating shawarma.
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