Oct 13 2006
fruitcake comment leads to lawsuit…
The conclusion of a lawsuit involving a grandmother, terrorism fears, a gruff postal clerk and the dense dessert only added to the “lamentable reputation” of the U.S. Postal Service, according to the court.
It all began Dec. 17, 2002, when Lucille Greene, 88, showed up at the Magnolia post office with a box of fruitcakes. Every year, Greene bakes and mails up to 30 fruitcakes before Christmas, sending them to relatives and friends, nuns and veterans. But on that occasion, nearly a year after several deaths from anthrax sent through the mail, Greene encountered what she felt was rude and embarrassing questioning from the clerk, James P. Maurer.
“He shook my fruitcakes and asked ‘what kind of explosives do you have in here?’ ” Greene said.
Others in the post office began to laugh, Greene said, and even though the package was accepted, she became flustered and upset, leaving in tears and tripping over a concrete parking barrier outside, seriously injuring her knee and breaking her glasses and a tooth.
She subsequently filed a lawsuit seeking damages for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress — charging the rude interrogation, where she felt she was accused of being a terrorist, led directly to her injuries. Read about it here.
I would say giving a fruitcake for a gift is terrorism! 
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12 responses so far
fruitcake giving fruitcakes. Taking this to court ranks up there with the lady who sued McDonalds over hot coffee and smokers who sue because they kept smoking for 40 years after everyone knew that cigarettes caused cancer.
It seems that the “una-bomber humor” doesn’t translate well to the WWII generation……….you can see the postal worker holding a small package that weighs much more than it looks like it would - those fruit cakes are heavy - and saying “geez lady, what kind of explosives do have in here anyway?”…………pretty funny.
See, if you are astute, you learn something every day.
I didn’t know people still make fruitcake. I thought the universal critical mass of fruitcake had been achieved years ago and that said mass of fruitcake just continues to be recut, repackaged, and redistributed. I mean no body eats the stuff. Do they?
Kevin Holmes
At her age, one would expect her to have developed a sense of humour.
Kevin Holmes, I can assure you that here in Oz, we eat kilos of the stuff, especially at Xmas.
Kevin B. and Kevin Holmes,
I understand that most Americans detest fruitcake, and rightfully so — IF one has never tasted a home-made English-style fruitcake, which is absolutely nothing like the store-bought stuff that you know. A real fruitcake is made 2 or 3 months in advance, and soaked in brandy or rum to age it, and it has nothing much to do with cake — more with fruit and nuts and other complex flavours and spices. I likely put you off with the part about it being aged for so long, and in alcohol. Anyway, the real stuff truly is a treat, to which Francoise will no doubt agree. The cakes from the stores that most people know are dry, tasteless, bland, boring and dull. I can’t think of anything good about them at all. The same statements can be said of the English Christmas puddings (steamed pudding, plum pudding, etc.) The real ones are a treat. The ready-made ones from the stores are yucky. I make both ever year, and people love them. Why? Because they rarely get the real thing!
Aaaah, nice to hear from a Commonwealth cousin!! I’ve never had a shop-bought fruit cake, so cannot comment. I soak muscatels in whiskey for 2 weeks, then in goes a kilo of butter mixed with black sugar, glace fruit, dried fruit, walnuts, almonds, cardamon, cinnamon and other spices- and it’s cooked for 7 fragrant hours. Then it’s aged for 3 months. Result- an incredibly nutritious, perfumed and sustaining confection that’s dark as night and rich as Persia. We Aussies can’t get enough of it.
I’ll be in USA for Thanksgiving, and have been told that it’s a glutton’s paradise. This I have to see for myself, as I don’t like American food. Sorry, Kevin et al! No disrespect intended- but your cuisine seems to be laced with horrid chemicals. Everything tastes queer over there- even the fruit.
40 years ago, I used to make batches of fruitcake for our boys in Vietnam. They used to send back euologistic responses, which was gratifying.
Brian- what’s Shirley Phelps’s email? I’ve lost it. Have just checked their latest offering- they’ve proudly posted videos of their interviews and I must say that I am starting to feel less sorry for them than I originally did. A mother of 11 children, singing “The Amish are burning in Hell”, and stating that those tiny girls deserved to die has me speechless. I just can’t understand why their raging mad God didn’t zap Gov. Rendell, seeing that he’s the one with whom they’re picking a bone. Maybe the Almighty’s aim is faulty?
Francoise,
Your fruitcake sounds wonderful. Unles it’s a kind I have never tasted, American fruitcake is icredibly heavy and the glazed fruit in it are designed to rip holes in you.
As for Shirley Phelps, the final accounting has not happened. Their raging mad God is not the God of the Bible, who loves the whole world and doesn’t want anyone to perish. His aim is fine, His timing is just different than ours.
Hi Francoise,
Your cake sounds wonderful. My method is much the same as yours and it looks nothing like the picture at the top of this page. For those who might like a comparison, it would be like the difference between a true Italian pasta with sauce made from fresh ingredients, compared to Kraft Dinner (Francoise, K.D. is a boxed pasta fast food item, with a cheese sauce made from powder, a.k.a. chemicals — it can be prepared in 7 minutes, or less, if you use a microwave oven. It is very popular here.)
Tom, your comment is correct, about the type of fruitcake that you (and most others) have had. Baked sawdust would be about as appealing. The real thing can be obtained in some gourmet stores in larger cities, but it is terribly expensive, due to the costly ingredients, the length of time making it, plus the aging process, etc.
Francoise, Shirley Phelps’ email address is slpr@cox.net. Good luck!
Struth Doreen! Glazed fruit that can rip holes into you???????????What on earth is done to achieve that??????? Are they soaked in caustic soda, or similar? My mind has just gone into a new and dreadful world, trying to fathom such a thing.
I agree that Shirley’s god is raging mad- she believes in Jahweh of the OT, who is a complete psychopath. My comment was meant to be sarcastic.
As for her final accounting- if there is a merciful God, then surely he /she would understand the immense psychological terrors to which Shirley was subjected. It would be cruel to expect a savagely abused person to behave “normally”. I think she has her god confused with her brutal father. Personally, I think her dad is more scary ( and real) than any god!
Hi Brian- the KD sounds perfectly foul,and thanks for the email address. How many eggs do you use? I use 15, plus 700 ml whiskey. Yumptious!
Last time I was in USA, I photographed cakes they had in supermarkets. Nobody here would have believed me otherwise- the size and the fluorescent colours of the icing ( I think Americans call it frosting) had me gasping, and certainly shocked the family when I returned home.
Francoise, “Struth Doreen!” is an expression that I have never heard. I’m sure there is a story behind that one.
I am sorry to hear of Shirley’s latest rant about the Amish people. The Amish are such a peace-loving group, and they truly believe in forgiveness, when so many others would want an eye for an eye. Hopefully, Shirley will soften and become more sensitive to reality, but I don’t see any hope of that for a while. Growing up in an such an abusive environment must have been a truly frightening, horrible experience — something that is beyond our comprehension. Perhaps attitudes will change after Fred dies. Or, will their work intensify, in his honour?
Yes, the KD is awful, but everybody in North America has had it. It’s pretty easy to make — boil salted water, add the pasta, cook for 7 minutes, drain, add the cheese powder, some butter and milk, stir to make the sauce, viola. Add generous dollops of ketchup as garnish. Revolting!
I don’t make a large quantity of my Christmas cake — everybody seems to be on a diet for one reason or another, so, for the amount that I make, I use about 6 eggs, plus a generous amount of dark rum in the cake and of course, more rum for the soaking cloths.
And, “icing” is still referred as “frosting” here.
Hi Brian- “struth Doreen” is so old an expression that I don’t know its origin. I’d hazard a guess and say that it came from a radio play. “Struth” is an Aussie oath, so maybe, if it was a radio play, it might have been an harrassed husband’s constant retort to his missus, if her name was Doreen. Just a guess.
There was a dreadful TV reality show, about 18 years ago- “Sylvania Waters”, which we artfully shipped to UK, so the Poms all got a truly warped idea of what we’re like, as Noeline, the wife, was forever yelling at her husband, “Struth, Laurie!” whenever he failed to perfom his duties to her satisfaction. She became a cult figure over there and we were heartily thankful to see her go to UK permanently.
I don’t think the tragic Shirley will ever change. Remember, she lives in a compound, wherein the paranoia is constantly fuelled. Fred’s death will create a vacuum and probably a power-struggle. Or maybe they’ll just self-combust. On the surface, it appears that she’s being groomed to take over as head honcho, but siblings being what they are, there’ll be infights, sure as eggs. For Shirley to change, there’d have to be a realisation that her whole life had been controlled by a desperately disturbed man- and maybe she can’t face that, by which I mean the control factor, and her father’s undoubted mental illness. I read somewhere that Margie Phelps admitted that the clan was addicted to their picketing, as it was one way the family could have outings away from the old geezer.
Yes, the Amish’s forgiveness is remarkable- they even attended the funeral of the murderer and comforted his family. Would that more people had that sort of decency. What’s even more remarkable was the courage of those little girls in the face of death, and the one who offered to die in order to save the others- wwow! “Greater love hath no man ( or child) …etc”
A Muslim friend consulted my husband recently, having been defrauded of $9000 by a rort-artist ( confidence trickster to all in USA and Canada) All he wanted was the certainty that he HAD been ripped off- he’s so naive about many financial things. Once we demonstrated to him that his gut=-feelkings were correct and that he had indeed fallen victim to an unscupulous person, he forgave them and declined to take legal action. Sadly, he took out the 9 grand as a loan, so now has to pay it back, poor fellow. But his ability to forgive was impressive.
Ugh- the KD sounds utterly vile. Why not just boil pasta and toss some butter and Parmesan over it? Quicker and cheaper! If “ketchup” is what I think it is- that’s just adding insult to injury. Having seen the obesity levels of USA, I wonder if it’s the chemicals ( and corn syrup) they put into everything. I have to brace myself for 10 weeks of USA’s food, and doubtless will return home 15 kgs heavier! But it’ll be worth it -I love the people!
Silly me, I should have guessed. “Struth Doreen” is from that classic Aussie poem/saga “The Sentimental Bloke” by C.J. Dennis. If you ever weant to see what our proletarian dialect looks like when spelled phonetically, this is for you.