In a pickle

I had no idea how many different kinds of pickles there are on the market. I was at Whole Foods this afternoon getting potato salad ingredients and had to take a moment to "take in" the pickle shelf. I knew I wanted some sort of sweet and tart pickle, but there were three from which to choose: sweet gherkin pickles, sweet midget pickles, sweet whole pickles. Then, aside from the sweet pickles, you had dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, polish pickles, lime pickles. I spent almost 10 minutes picking up one jar after another, and ultimately chose regular sweet whole pickles.

After some research, I found out that the gherkins you get at the store aren't real gherkins. According to "Encyclopedia Britannica," gherkins are also known as bur gherkins or West Indian gherkins. "True gherkins have palmately lobed leaves with toothed edges, small flowers and furrowed, prickly fruits." So I bet you're wondering what you're going to do with your newfound knowledge of gherkin pickles? Well, now you can show off at that your next cocktail party when they serve gherkins next to the crudite and recite a brief history on the pickle. You never know when you're going to need this random bit of info.