Ten things you never knew about... pineapples

June 27 is celebrated (in certain parts of the USA at least) as International Pineapple Day. 1. A pineapple is neither a pine nor an apple. The name was given to it by early European settlers in America who thought it looked like a pine cone. 2. Actually the word pineapple was used for a pine tree or pine cone a century before America was discovered. 3. Pineapples were unknown to Europeans until discovered by Columbus on Guadeloupe in 1493. 4. Pineapple juice mixed with sand is said to be good for cleaning boat decks and machete blades. 5. Charles Dickens mentions pineapples three times in Martin Chuzzlewit and once each in Nicholas Nickleby and David Copperfield. 6. In Australian slang, “to get the wrong (or rough) end of the pineapple,” means to get a bad deal. 7. James Howard Dole founded the Hawaiian Pineapple Company and became known as The Pineapple King. 8. In the 1930s in Britain, “being on the pineapple” became a slang phrase for being on the dole. 9. “Only the knife knows the heart of the pineapple,” (Haitian proverb). 10. In December 2014 a boy named Grayson is said to have set a world record in Florida by popping 10 balloons with a pineapple in 30 seconds.