Chinese gooseberries

We got a half-pint of something called "kiwi berries" in our biweekly produce delivery today. (We use New Roots Organics, which aggregates from organic farms, finding what I think is a nice balance between patronizing locally and providing variety.) Usually the sheet they include describes anything unusual in the mix, so I wonder if I might be behind the curve on this one. The first Google hit is a company that claims to have been the first to start using the name kiwi berry as opposed to baby kiwi or hardy kiwi.

http://www.kiwiberry.com/kiwi%20berries%20css.htm

Kiwi fruit themselves were called Chinese gooseberries when they first came to the United States, and became kiwi fruit (after the bird of New Zealand) for marketing reasons. So it's funy to me that their little brethren have a branding kerfluffle to deal with as well.

I had two cavities filled this morning, so my mouth hasn't de-numbed enough to risk biting into one until just now. They're pretty good! A lot like a true kiwi, without the mess of the peel, although the fuzzless skin is a little rough and tasteless. Also, the firmness and flavor varies a lot from berry to berry. I tend to prefer (as with other fruits) the slightly firmer, tarter ones. I could see slicing these in half to add a little zany-ness to a salad, since E doesn't like nuts (my former favorite) as a topper.

In other news, a state application for federal funds that I worked on was not successful, I just found out today. I think the project had some problems, but it's a bummer, because it was for a type of service that's badly needed in Washington. Of course, it's badly needed elsewhere, too, so I'm interested to see who won, and how well they use the money.

My second year of grad school starts tomorrow, and I'm reading John Rawls on social justice. I skipped that course at Harvard, where it was very popular, and is about to go multimedia: http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/jmr/
I'm pretty sure I'm still not interested in political philosophy, and I'm hoping UW makes it more case-based, addressing specific real-world dilemmas rather than hypothetical rationalization.