DNA Edit: Going nuts – It can happen to anyone, anywhere

Nut  cases are on the increase. Not just on the ground, but in the air as  well. The reference here is to cases of people having problems with nuts — not fasteners which come with a threaded hole to be mated with a bolt  for holding multiple parts together. Nuts being talked about here are the edible kind. Some of them can be hard to crack, literally; for example, when walnuts are served with their shell and the  one served has no teeth for it. Metaphorically, nuts can be hard to crack and digest, even when served without a shell, as Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena discovered much to his disgust. 

“Returning from Kathmandu, I was served some  cashews on board a Sri Lankan (airline) flight, but it was so bad even a dog wouldn’t eat it,” fumed President Sirisena. After this explosion of presidential anger, the airline, which is deep in debt and a drag on Sri Lanka’s economy, has promptly dumped its stock of cashewnuts and decided to change its Dubai-based supplier. The airline has not said anything about whether it would serve other nuts in the place of the now discredited cashews. Passengers, of course, may be pleased to settle for other nuts such as Brazil nuts, pistachios,  macadamias, hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts, almonds and pine nuts. 

However,  Sri Lanka, which takes pride in producing some of the world’s best and tastiest cashews, may not want to substitute its home product with nuts from elsewhere. Besides, there’s no way of knowing if those flying a Sri Lankan airline would find them more edible  than, say, cashewnuts. Amidst all this pother caused by presidential displeasure over King Cashew, it would be sad if the bad name given to cashew as a nut is allowed to tar the reputation of the island’s cashew curry or the Sri Lankan Devilled Cashew Nut. This is a nut case that  shouldn’t be taken too far.