Potatoes...

There are two news stories that have been stuck in my head and I've just realized what they have in common.  Forever in my brain, a potato is a communist as well as an entertaining children's toy.

A few weeks ago, India announced that no further Chinese toys would be imported into the country.  Toy Wars.  Of course, there are always potatoes...Potatoes were a favorite toy of my first son - endless armies of potatoes have been arranged on my kitchen floor, rolled into battle, poked, decorated and transformed into various creatures. 

Potatoes were also recommended to me by my first political science professor, who was unabashedly Marxist.  He thought it would be more fruitful for me to devote more time to my studies, rather than work the small part-time job I had.  I explained I needed the income for food.  He said "You should just eat more potatoes".

Last night I saw photographs of 750 elderly communists staging an economic protest in Russia. The last photograph here is most fantastic.  Thanks to one of my old professors, looking at it made me think of potatoes.

Ah. Next I shall have to write on "Government Stake" and Potatoes.