IF A TREE FALLS IN THE FOREST . . .

Why msolga, thank you very much from an old broad.
JLN, I'm actually a recovering Presbyterian, but dust to dust, ashes to ashes just seems appropriate for this administration. Thanks for the birthday wishes.
Osso! I love your Pacco avatar. His sweet face is such a lovely sight to see. We'll celebrate my birthday in the Big Apple very soon. Drinks are on me.
Thanks for the info on trees. Reagan must have thought he was onto something, he just wasn't quite sure what--but then he never quite got it right, did he?

If a tree falls in the desert,

Is there a bush bomb closeby?

Oh yes, BillW, but it is a very stupid bomb and misses the tree, doing collateral damage to the nearby town full of women and children.
Despite the loss of life, Bush is very proud that a tree was saved, showing how his environmental policy reaches out to the rest of the world, spreading democracy and capitalism.
BTW, he has hired Haliburton to water the tree, which will take at least 30 emplyees working steadily for the next ten years.

<sigh> and to realize this is the spot that is considered to be the dawn of civilization - we take a step backwards to apprehend monsters and the tree lies, quietly!

A friend of mine is an archeologist. You can imagine how horrified she is.
She spent 17 days in Iran last August, knowing that it would be a trip of a lifetime. Now she is so grateful to have had the experience, knowing the chance for going back is unlikely to come again in her lifetime.

Ah, looking at them trees that fell a long, long time ago. Often wish I had gone into that field - but, I needed instant (or as close as one could get) gratification way back then!

All of the above,

that was grape indeed because I saw a bunch of them trees too.

Long time Aligis, where you been hiding - under one of them trees?

Hi Billw,

Naw, I'm just a maple trees little squirt.

Well, Diane - my dear woman - that is the funniest
thing I've heard in quite awhile - Bush??? concerned
about a tree?? when there are millions he is now
hatcheting,destroying in the USA - I guess this gives
him one brief shining moment to "appear" to be an
environmenalist - in disguise.

tree
I think he was advised to use this tree as a (false) symbol of environmental responsibility. What a joke. But we must remember that politicians are always bamboozling us with their manipulations of symbols, flags, ancestors (founding fathers), military music, ideals like "freedom," "liberation", the "American Way," etc. even when they have little real regard for the freedom of others, or the Bill of Rights. And the problem is that this b*ll sh*t works since the majority of people have no idea of what's happening or an ounce of critical thinking. Pardon me for saying what is obvious to you.

I am STUNNED - Ronald Reagan was RIGHT ABOUT
something? Good heavens - well I have spend tons
of time in the Great Smoky Nat'l Park - and it doesn't
look like smog there - but it does look like fog - although
only in the higher elevations, up in the mountains, where
there is nothing BUT trees. I still don't give a hoot - I love
the place, and no doubt will until I die. I adore the night
sounds, the smell, the birds, streams that are ice cold yet
trout still abound in them. I'm not much for fishing - but my
3 daughters and I used to do so much hiking all around the
park, we went to see every waterfall that we could get to.
It's wonderful leaving in the early morning - we were often
surprised by a deer, just standing and staring at us for a
moment before bounding off up the hill and out of sight.

Obvious to me, a fallen tree is a symbol. Others say I am myopic and can't see the big picture - I say they are into fertilizer.

tree
Wonderful, Babs. THANKS!

Babs, your lovely post took me back to my childhood when we went camping in the mountains outside Tucson. I can still smell the pine and feel the soft path covered with pine needles, leading to a sun filled glen near a pristine stream in which I could get a drink of water without worrying about pollution. It almost hurts to remember.
BTW, how are you feeling--will you be able to come to the Florida gathering? I'm hoping to see you there.

Reagan was not really right. Smog wouldn't happen without the car exhausts, or mostly wouldn't.

On politicians promos, I picked up a nice used book for 50 cents, Kenneth Clark's autobiography, part II. I think the title is ...Kenneth Clark, part two. Ha. Anyway, in WWII in London, he was for a while involved in the Ministry of Information. He talks about there being only seventeen tanks, I think in the whole country. He arranged to parade a tank around a square, each time changing license plate and driver so it would look like more....

I am liking the book, he is a nicely acerbic writer.

If a tree falls in the forest, not everybody will hear it with the same reaction. Some will not hear it at all, while others will feel the full impact of it - the sound and trembling of ground. Some will hear it, but will ignore it. Some that think they heard something will ask for more information about what made the sound. Some will ask whether it was necessary for the tree to fall. Some will cry that the tree fell. Some will say it was wrong to cut the tree, and others will protest the chopping - even after it has been cut. c.i.

c.i., waxing philosophical

tree
Actually, BillW, C.I. seems to be waxing as far away from philosophy as he can get. The original conudrum was, as you know: If a tree falls in a forest, and there is noone to hear it fall, does it make a sound? Of course it doesn't make a sound if by sound we mean a human auditory experience. But, Bishop Berkely says, God hears it, so there IS a sound even though no human is there to hear it... yada, yada, yada. I don't know what's gotten into me.
Or was it, If a man falls in a forest...?

If a man is felled in the forest perhaps a widow maker took him down without a sound.