Tangerines: What’s In A Name
When you hear the name Tangiers you think of an exotic piece of geography from the ancient world, exciting, mysterious and sun drenched. It’s not surprising that the citrus fruit named after that locale, the tangerine, might elicit the same thoughts. There is just something about the name. It rolls off the tongue nicely and brings to mind those juice dripping golden orbs that are so good to eat.
Tangerine. What a great name. Why would anyone want to mess with it. Do they think they can improve on the mental image that it brings or do they think changing the name might make it more marketable? Or maybe it’s just the pride of the cross breeder that requires him or her to brand it with a different name.
When you go to the store and you see tangerines, are they called tangerines? Or are they called King or Dancy or Pixie or Honey or Clementine or any of a hundred other names? Did you know that each of these varieties have something different about them. Sometimes it’s something small like a slightly sweeter taste and sometimes it’s something you notice right away like fewer or no seeds.
When it comes right down to it, the name tangerine really only describes a kind of fruit not exactly how that fruit is going to taste.
And then sometimes it doesn’t even do that.
The name Tangerine is more popular than you thought.
For example there’s the Tangerine Bowl, now called the Capital One Bowl, that is a New Years Day football staple in Orlando. Actually the name Tangerine Bowl was resurrected after it became the Capital One bowl and ran for a short time before being renamed the Champs Bowl.
Now you might think that the Tangerine Bowl is held in Florida. Would you be surprised to find that there is a Tangerine Bowl in Quincy, IL? Now at this Tangerine Bowl you can watch the football version on 42″ plasma screens and get in a few frames at halftime. Yes this Tangerine Bowl is actually a bowling center complete with sports bar and restaurant.
The Tangerine Dream, a progressive electronic band, will probably not be playing at the Quincy Tangerine Bowl anytime soon, but this very popular musical group has toured Japan and Germany playing their special blend of music.
Okay maybe you’ve never heard of those guys but you do know Led Zeppelin and Robert Plank’s song Tangerine which is a signature song for the band.
So while a rose is a rose by any other name, the same can’t be said for that fast food citrus fruit, the Tangerine.
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