Blossom: Day Sixteen, Doctor Carrot Is A Wally

Clear-sighted.

Tuesday 16 Frocktober

Outfit/s

• Factory gear

 Menu

• Breakfast - toast, coffee, fruit (yaaawn)
• Lunch - sandwiches, fruit, tea ... (yaaawn)
• Dinner - leftover boxty, fish and veg, including CARROTS OMG CARROTS AAAAGH ...

Mood

• Over it

I don't mind the clothes, in fact I quite like them.

I didn't mind my lunch sandwich, and I really enjoyed my lovely apple.

I am always game for a bit of fish.

BUT THE CARROTS OH OH THE CARROTS ...

Why so many carrots? I mean, I've had them pretty much every day since this forties caper started.

The thing is, carrots are easy to grow. They are rich in Vitamin A. They were available during the second world war, off-ration, and easy to grow in the backyard Victory Garden.

The regular eating of carrots was encouraged by the British Ministry of Food, and a sort of carrot mascot called Doctor Carrot was developed to encourage people to stick to their carroty goodness all war.

Look at him. Look at the smarmy, spat-wearing wally.

Well, I have stuck to my carrots and now the blinking carrots are sticking in me.

Ever felt like doing this with your carrots? Carrots. Eyes. A natural combo.

My favourite carrot story is from the second world war, actually. You probably know it. It's the one about carrots improving your eyesight.

See the way it goes is: eat carrots, and your ability to see in the dark will improve. This one was put about quite earnestly during the forties in Britain.

Handy, if you spend quite a lot of your time in the darkness trying to find your way to the shelter during blackout.

So naturally, people took up Doctor Carrot's cause with a vengeance. Carrots! I mean, who would have guessed? But they do contain plenty of Vitamin A, which had recently been identified as important for eyesight. So obviously eating your carrots improves your night-vision!

Consume plenty of these ...

(wally)

... improve these. Obvs.

So does it actually work? I've been consuming carrots like a bandit for the last couple of weeks, so let's see ...

No. It doesn't work.

In fact, carrots don't particularly improve your eyesight. The rumour that they do was actually put about during the war by British Intelligence. Why? Because pilots were suddenly managing some fairly impressive night-time raids. Such accuracy had to be the result of something, right? Rumour had it, a diet rich in carrots was responsible.

But was it? 

No. Something else was responsible. Something that British Intelligence didn't want certain people to know about. The carrot rumour was a Furphy.

This doesn't improve your night vision.

This does.

Airborne Interception Radar. A newly developed technology that allowed accurate targeting of incoming enemy aircraft. There had to be a good reason for the accuracy of the British anti-aircraft fire, and it might as well be carrots as anything else.

This rumour was very pervasive. So pervasive, that I recall being told to eat carrots to improve my eyesight back in nineteen-(coughety-cough).

So, why am I eating so many carrots right now? I might as well get radar, right?

The thing is, carrots are still inexpensive, healthy, fairly tasty (at least for a couple of weeks) and are, most of all, available.

Sigh.

Frock you later,
Blossom