odds and ends

Check out the great piece on growing Christmas trees from the History Channel's special on Christmas. Click here.

I saw this article the other day, about a semi truck with an open trailer hauling Christmas trees. There was an accident and the trees fell out on the highway. First, I certainly hope the driver is OK. But also, it made me think -- the date this happened was December 10. What about all those people who claim that real trees are cut and hauled in August? Harvest probably finished this week though as most lots are receiving their final shipments.

There was supposed to be a segment about marketing Christmas trees on The Daily Show tonight but it got cut at the last minute. Bummer.

I don't normally let jerky emails from jerk-ity jerks rile me, but sometimes I let 'em have it. Here's one from earlier this week. Did I come off too mean?

From: michael
Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2010 12:21 PM
To: info@realchristmastrees.org
Subject: Informative site!

It really is an informative site you have here. Great facts, some of them which prove that Christmas trees, whether fake or real, should not be bought or sold at all. The fact that you try to make it sound "eco" to grow them is absurd. These trees are grown on land that formerly had virgin forests, where a tree that was 20 times + the size of a living room christmas tree, and was infinitely more useful/less detrimental to the planet. Yes, a real tree is better than a plastic tree shipped from China, but no christmas tree is better than real one that takes up land, shipping and growing costs, and then is thrown on the side of the road to hit the land fill just one month later.

Personally, I'd rather see a virgin forest and a bunch of Scrooges with no holiday decor. But, then, where would the industry be, and the Christmas cheer? Perhaps, in our lifetime, we may find a replacement for the ridiculously wasteful consumer holiday, along with the christmas tree. And, in that same lifetime, we'll see our forests diminish to specks of national park reserves due to the growing number of mindless people who think that land should profit people, in some way or another. If a farmer feels the need to grow something, what happened to good ole fashioned food? I can live without a christmas tree, but not without christmas dinner. Show me some facts about the millions of starving people compared to the 30 million christmas trees sold each year in the states. Now that's some interesting facts...