Washington Babylon — December 16, 2009, 12:10 pm

Yes, We Have No Tomatoes: Costco’s missile defense shield for Palin

The Salt Lake City Tribune tells the tale of Helen Rappaport, a Utah woman who went shopping at Costco shortly before a Sarah Palin book signing event at the store:

While going through the check-out lane, again with no wait, she told the clerk she forgot to get some grape tomatoes, which she loves, so she would be right back. That’s when the bells went off.

The clerk told her they had no tomatoes that day. No tomatoes? At Costco? As she was leaving, she noticed a man with a store manager’s name tag and asked him why they had no tomatoes. He informed her the store did have tomatoes, but they were taken off the shelves for a few hours.

It turns out that Palin had been pelted with a tomato at an earlier stop on her book tour and the management at the Costco was determined it wouldn’t happen here.

Share
Single Page

More from Ken Silverstein:

From the June 2012 issue

The government’s man

How to read the r??©sum??© of a terrorist expert

Washington Babylon September 29, 2010, 11:37 am

Signing Out

Get access to 163 years of
Harper’s for only $19.97

United States Canada

CATEGORIES

THE CURRENT ISSUE

July 2013

Glaciers for Sale

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

Blood Spore

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

Other Types of Poison

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

May I Touch Your Hair?

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

view Table Content

FEATURED ON HARPERS.ORG

[Editor's Note]
A global-warming get-rich-quick scheme, a magic-mushroom murder,
and more
[Report]
Glaciers for Sale

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

“Water is the medium of climate change — the ice that melts, the seas that rise. It is also an early indicator of how humanity may respond to climate change: by financializing it.”
Photograph (detail) by Aaron Huey
[Personal and Otherwise]
Photograph With Shirley

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

The author writes about the inspiration for “May I Touch Your Hair?,” in the July issue
“When you look at Shirley’s face, and what’s going on — that’s why they’d rather see a photograph than read.”
Photograph by Philip Shan
[Harper's Finest]
What the Young Man Should Know

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

From the March 1933 issue
“I submit that he who cannot do these things is not completely educated.”
Illustration by Elizabeth Shippen Green (1902)
[Folio]
Blood Spore

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

“The strange timing of Pollock’s murder begot paranoia of all shades and textures . . .”
Photograph by Paul Stamets

Percentage by which the risk of type 2 diabetes increases for every two hours a day that a person watches television:

20

Two bottled ghosts—of an old man and a young girl—were sold at auction in New Zealand.

The practice of sexualized eyeball licking was causing conjunctivitis in Japanese sixth graders.

Subscribe to the Weekly Review newsletter. Don’t worry, we won’t sell your email address!

HARPER’S FINEST

The Coming Ice Age

By

A true scientific detective story
Subscribe Today