Radishes & Tomatoes ("Reds")

[Dennis R. Preston]

Apparently very widespread. In Poland in the early 70's a riddle went this way:

Q. Why is Poland like a radish.

A. Because it has only a thin layer of red on the outside.

dInIs

>    We have our "apples" (red on the outside, white on the inside)
>and "oreos" (black on the outside, white on the inside).  I found
>the following interesting, but I don't know how widespread it was.
>
>SIX PRISONS AND TWO REVOLUTIONS:
>ADVENTURES IN TRANS-CAUCASIA AND ANATOLIA, 1920-1921
>by Oliver Baldwin
>Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company
>1925
>
>Pg. 192:
>    "We must keep Communist discipline.  No perfect state can exist
>with people who forget brotherhood."
>    He told us that the amount of "radishes" far (Pg. 193--ed.)
>outnumbered the "tomatoes," and when I asked what he meant, he
>replied that the former were only "red" on the outside, and the
>latter were "red" all through.

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736