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Ask Cool Daddy’s Fruit Stand

Dear Cool Daddy: A woman I work with says her first computer back in the 1980s was something called an Apricot. I think she’s mixing Apples and….well, you know. So is she fruity or what? …from Dagwood, in Duluth

Dear Dag: It’s discouraging, isn’t it…when the “lady at the office” is always right and you’re always wrong. But in the early days of what was called “personal computing,” Apple was a major player from the get-go, and so a natural target to be taken down…what better way to attack than with other fruits?…or at least that was the reasoning at the time. Thus the Apricot, with this in-your-face anti-Apple advertising…

Didn’t pan out that way of course, but how could it? Earlier, the Pineapple was not just a competitor, but an out-and-out clone…within months, they were forced to ditch at least the “apple” part of their name. But look at the difference a year made…48 to 64 K..no longer a kit, but assembled…and for 6 less…

Another Apple clone was the…wait for it…Orange+…and the Poppy took aim at IBM, spoofing their iconic rose…

So what else botanical begins with A?…Acorn, of course. Even printers got fruity, with the Gorilla brand Banana model. And furniture from Pearr [sic]…BTW, that Commodore is a Series 4000, successor to the original PET from 1977…it came with its own monitor and 8, 16, or 32 K of memory. The game-changing Vic-20 was still 2 years away.

Don’t forget your surge protector…and a whole “basket” of choices..Lemon, Lime, Orange, and Peach. So yeah, I guess that’s where the Blackberry came from, nez pah?