The Idea of Being Top Banana Museum Apparently Is Not That Appealing

I’ve written about Ken Bannister’s unsuccessful effort to find a buyer for his Altadena-based Banana Museum, all 17,000 collectibles of it. And for just $300,000.

I don’t understand; there’s got to be someone out there who would treasure such mementos as a banana-sequined purse bearing the image of Michael Jackson. I was depressed about this impasse until I was tipped by reader Bob Patterson, a columnist for the online publication Delusions of Adequacy, about another banana museum. This one’s in Auburn, Wash., where Ann Mitchell Lovell has 4,000 items.

I phoned Lovell and asked if she’d buy Bannister’s Banana Museum for $300,000. Lovell burst out in laughter.

“I’m a state employee,” she said. “I don’t have any money.”

Banana split (cont.): Lovell, who keeps most of her artifacts, art items and cultural curiosities in a bedroom, says of Bannister, “I’m not trying to compete with him. He has the world’s largest banana museum.”

But she does have one collectible that her Altadena rival lacks: a 4-foot-tall bass shaped like a Chiquita banana (see photo). (She bought the musical instrument from an antique store and has been unable to determine its origin--movie prop, etc.) Lovell says that her love of the fruit began as a child when her parents called her Anna Banana. Her collecting moved into overdrive when, on a trip to Hawaii, she bought a T-shirt advertising a bar called Anna’s Bannanas (misspelled, but who cares?).

Her collection is therapeutic.

“In California you have so much sunshine,” she said. “Up here, it so gray and so rainy. That’s why I love having all this yellow in my house. It brightens my mood.”

Love fades but business must go on: “You’ve heard of fire sales, flood sales and going-out-of-business sales,” said Mimi Kalland of San Pedro. But in Edinburgh, Scotland, she came upon a new variety (see photo).

Food for thought: Mark McClain of Glendora found a place where you better be careful if you back up in the buffet line (see photo).

Familiar waters: Dana Rohrabacher, known as “the surfing congressman,” donned a wetsuit and swam with some sharks for 45 minutes at Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific on Friday. The Orange County Republican told KFWB radio that he felt “safer here” than in Washington, where the sharks “seem hungrier.” One word of advice, congressman: Let’s not get carried away and request a personal appearance with a komodo dragon at the L.A. Zoo.

miscelLAny: The other day this column showed a White House press pass that said President Bush was visiting Santa “Anna.”

Gary Robb of L.A. said he was surprised that a president from Texas would want such a confrontation.

“The last time,” Robb pointed out, “Gen. Santa Anna defeated the Texans at the Alamo.”

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.