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understanding the commercial logic for that and no one has put
together a case that persuades me it is commercially viable."
Then, stressing he was speaking personally and not on behalf of
Co-op's board, his voice became slightly conspiratorial. "Let's face
it, Mrs Bloggs in the high street thinks that we're all one. And why
shouldn't she? We all brand ourselves the Co-op."
Then he said he did not want to talk about this delicate matter any
more. Neither did he like my suggestion that his revamp is a belated
response to Mr Regan's mooted bid for what was then the Co-op-
erative Wholesale Society. That effort ended in chaos and criminal
convictions, though not for Mr Regan. "I was just a junior manager
and not running the company then," said Mr Marks.
This little cameo is characteristic of Mr Marks, the forthright son of
a Yorkshire security systems engineer.
Outside work, he lists keeping fit, playing racquetball and drum-
ming as hobbies. His band, Last Orders, play covers, mostly of
Rolling Stones, The eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd songs, in pubs
near his home on the edge of Bradford. No Dylan songs then? Mr
Marks laughed a little nervously. Then again, not everyone likes
the ad, which has been posted on an internet site called "TV's
Worst Adverts". "Thank God I'm not the only one who got halfway
through and wondered if the Co-op had hijacked the TV," says one
post. "I don't mind the ad. Just how much of my life it takes up each
time it is on." Then there's a message, from a blogger called Timmy
Havoc, that Mr Marks will prefer: "At least it's for the totally ethical
Co-operative," it states. "It's not as if he's selling his integrity for
Victoria's Secret."
CV Status: Married to Julia for 38 years. Two daughters
Interests: Drumming, working out, playing racquetball, supporting
Bradford City
Favourite Music: The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd
Drives: "A Range Rover that we sell in our car dealership business."
Current reading: Biographies of Sir Winston Churchill and eagles
co-founder Don Felder
Management style: "Let people know what's expected and give
them clear goals to achieve."
Personal motto: "Never look down on people on the way up because
you may meet them on the way down."
Tomatoes apparently originated in the Andes of South America.
They were probably carried north to Central America and Mexico
through migration. Apparently, tomatoes had little use as a food
crop until european explorers arrived. The first known mention
of the tomato in print was in 1554. Italians seemed to have begun
growing the tomato by that time. By the mid-1700's, they were
common in Italy and grown to a lesser extent in other european
countries.
Thomas Jefferson, who was very interested in horticulture, grew the
tomato in 1781. But it would be much later before tomatoes would
gain widespread popularity in this country.
Many people thought the tomato was poisonous. It would have been
easy to make this assumption because it is a member of the night-
shade family. Several members of this family are indeed poisonous.
What about the old debate as to whether the tomato is a fruit or
vegetable? Botanically, it is a fruit because it is a ripened ovary.
However, horticulturists treat it as a vegetable. For instance, in
universities throughout this country, it is vegetable specialists that
work with tomatoes.
In 1893, the Supreme Court ruled in a case over whether the tomato
was a fruit or vegetable. Fruits and vegetables were assessed dif-
ferent import duties. A fruit importer was having to pay a 10%
tariff on tomatoes being imported from the West Indies. However,
fruits could be imported duty-free. So the importer sued a New
York customs collector to recover duties he had been paying on the
tomatoes. The ruling issued by Justice Gray said tomatoes were
vegetables.

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