Day 102 ~ the anatomy of an orange

Stacey called me today to chat & the conversation eventually turned to the wedding...and her dress. "Have you started it yet, Mom??" she asked. "No, not yet..." I said. "Would you like my measurements, Mom?" (Umm...do you think she has been reading this blog?) "Yes, Stacey, I'd love to have your measurements." I then gave her specific instructions on what I needed, the first of which was the measurement of her waist. "Where exactly is my waist, Mom? At my hips?" I closed my eyes...and tried hard not to exclaim..."No...NO! Your waist is not your hips! Does that make any sense?" Instead I said, "No, dear, your waist is where the top of your pants are....no wait, that's not right...your pants are below your waist..." Then my clever Stacey asks "Is my waist where my belly button is?" "Yes, yes! Your belly button! That's where your waist is!"
And then later on this evening, when Steve & I were driving Rachael home, we start talking about the oranges she had been eating - the navel oranges I bought this afternoon for her. Steve asks if they were good, sweet, etc. She said yes, they were good - and no seeds, as all navel oranges should be. Steve asks "Rachael, do you know why they are called navel oranges?" She says "DUH, DAD!" (Ok, she really didn't say that but I heard her think it!) "Because they have belly buttons..." This whole conversation prompted our question: How does the navel orange reproduce if it doesn't have seeds?? Well, according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navel_orange): "A single mutation in 1820 in an orchard of sweet oranges planted at a monastary in Brazil led to the navel orange. The mutation causes a 'twin' fruit, with a smaller orange embedded in the outer fruit opposite the stem. From the outside, the smaller, undeveloped twin leaves a formation at the top of the fruit, looking similar to the human navel. Navel oranges are almost always seedless, and tend to be larger than other sweet oranges. They are produced without pollination through parthenocarpy." (What is parthenocarpy? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenocarpy.) And you never thought you'd learn something new about oranges, did you?