Ah, now I see why your reputation preceeds you! I very much enjoyed your post!

Tom:
>Response A: avocado trees are brittle and too dangerous to climb for fun.
>Avocado trees have very brittle wood that breaks easily; even a very large
>branch can break - esp. if it is home to carpenter ants. Due to the high risk
>in climbing avocado trees, no "naked ape" would climb an avocado tree for
>fun -indeed, there are good reasons to avoid climbing avocado trees! As one who
>has picked avocados, let me assure you it can be dangerous. I have fallen from
>trees, and had large branches break and been attacked by hordes of large,
>very angry, carpenter ants (also wasps, bees, mosquitos, spiders, and scorpions).
>On multiple occasions, a large branch above me broke, and it literally
>'rained' angry carpenter ants - loads of fun!  Do the NFL guys want us to believe they
>pick avocados naked, with no tools?  Picking avocados naked just leaves more
>skin exposed for carpenter ants to bite.

Yuck! Carpenter ants! They probably don't even taste very good! :)

My experience isn't quite that bad. I've done my share of picking as well
but thought an avo tree was among the easiest. Plum trees! now there is a
dangerous tree naked--thorns everywhere. Yikes! I prefer to be at least
bare foot in a tree, if not completely naked, because I can feel the
details of the wood better and feel more sure-footed. I'm sure the
experience would be different picking in a commercial orchard (when time
was money so to speak). And with your bad ant experiences I can see how the
recreational aspect would wither. (Cassia trees are home to big bastardly
biting ants--maybe they're carpenter ants--which make the faraging
experience more of a _dashing_ experience. Indeed, those ants--and a very
steep hillside--were the cause of my only serious tree foraging accident,
which healed fine.) Still, I enjoy getting up in a tree, though some trees
are easier to climb than others, of course. I sometimes climb trees just
for fun, even when there's no fruit to be had. I'm stuck in adolescence, no
doubt :)

>Next we note that avocados do not ripen on the tree - if left undisturbed,
>they will hang until the seed inside sprouts and the fruit is an inedible
>mass of roots, at which point the fruit drops (i.e., the fruit is ripe then but
>inedible.) Avocados must be picked when mature green and stored until ripe.
>Further, unripe avocados are unpalatable and may even be toxic (ref: "Fruits
>of Warm Climates", by Julia F. Morton).

The necessity  of off-the-tree-ripening for certain fruits is a topic I
have thought about but never really discussed. Since avocados (alone among
fruits) do NOT have a well-defined taste-change for me, I have often
wondered if the problem was a result of the fruit needing to be ripened off
the tree. What other fruits must be ripened off the tree? Pears? There must
be more but I can't think of any. (bananas, contrary to the words of United
Fruit company and Chiquita, will ripen on the stalk...) Still, avos DO
change for most people. I can't remember the last pear I ate (all sweetness
and no flavor for me).

Not that I have a problem per say with domesticated fruits. (I do wonder,
though, how much of the problems many people have with "too much fruit" is
due to not including RAF in their diet--but that is another can of worms).
Horticulture surely predated  agriculture. Domesticated fruits (for the
most part) do have taste changes (albiet "late"). I think it's nice that I
am more attracted to wilder fruits when there is a choice.

I am also reminded of getting my commupins when I first was in a real
tropical rainforest (Peruvian Amazon, and later Thailand)! The idea that we
could just take off our clothes and walk into the rain forest and get along
was dashed very quickly: The canopy is WAY up there, and I have never seen
much wild fruit at all (I would be living on insects in a jiffy, as they
would also be living off, and on, me! :)). Without the knowledge (of
hunting and gathering) carried in the brains of a tribe and passed along to
offspring, even a Stone Ager would have a hell of a go of it I imagine. Our
brain, for better or worse, is part of our package. I further gained great
respect for the "marketplace" as a social event and fruit-ripening
mechanism. Humans share food in a much more sophisticated manner than any
other primates. Humans are great! Of course, they're every other adjective
too, but...

Cheers,
Kirt