Inconvenient rays

Afternoon sunlight in late Fall can do some very strange things. I was out until the sun had almost set, and when I returned and got out of my car, I saw that one of my favorite evergreen trees had suddenly turned half yellow!

diseasedtree.jpg

I was shocked for a moment, and thinking it must be a dreadful new "sudden tree death syndrome" (doubtless caused by Global Warming©), I ran inside and grabbed my camera. As you can see, Coco had zero interest in documenting this heretofore unknown tree disease.

Yeah, I finally figured out that it was the sun. The sunlight had played a trick on me by leaking its long rays through the upper part of the building across the street as it set. This caused a few shapes of fading sunlight to appear in a few places, creating the illusion that the tree had suddenly yellowed.

Come to think of it, I've never seen the sun behave that way before.

It must be Global Warming. The layer of deathly greenhouse gases is making the sun act crazy as a warning sign to us all!

Speaking of all things global, here's what Al Gore said earlier:

Calling the Iraq war "the worst strategic mistake in the entire history of the United States" and "worse than a civil war," former Vice President Gore urged President Bush to find a way to get U.S. troops out of Iraq "as quickly as possible without making the situation worse" while appearing this morning on NBC's "Today."
Notice he said "worse than a civil war." At least he didn't say "worse than Global Warming." And it's a relief to know that Al Gore doesn't think Global Warming was a strategic mistake.

I'm glad we have a temporary reprieve.

posted by Eric on 12.06.06 at 06:34 PM





TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://classicalvalues.com/cgi-bin/pings.cgi/4307






Comments

So the worst strategic mistake in American History was not made during the Carter Presidency? According to my count, a good half-dozen of the Top 10 occurred during those four brutal years.

PS: I'm fine with the red shrubbery in the accompanying pic. It's the weird "haunted tree from Wizard of Oz" thing growing out the top of the tire swing that's weirding me out.

Rhodium Heart   ·  December 7, 2006 01:51 AM

A lot of people are arguing these days over whether the invasion of Iraq was a mistake, but I don't think we have a generally agreed definition of the word 'mistake' when it comes to this war. A lot of other words are being used to describe the war that mean different things to different people: folly, fiasco, disaster, and stupidity. Personally, I think this war is best described as a fiasco.

My father used to say that Prohibition was the stupidest thing the U.S. government did in his lifetime. My father made it through the Great Depression by making and selling bathtub gin, so he was in a poor position to complain about Prohibition.

Chocolatier   ·  December 7, 2006 01:28 PM

I used to have a boss who was fond of saying that every bad thing that happened was the worst thing that had ever happened to him. When called on this, he explained that he really meant it -- and each time the worst thing ever happened to him was worse than the last worse thing that had ever happened to him. I won't name him lest I get sued.

RH, that happens to be the remnants of one of Coco's victims. It used to be a thick mooring rope, until Coco worked it apart, and I supplemented it with a chain.

Eric Scheie   ·  December 7, 2006 02:58 PM

Post a comment

You may use basic HTML for formatting.





Remember Me?

(you may use HTML tags for style)



December 2006
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
          1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31            

ANCIENT (AND MODERN)
WORLD-WIDE CALENDAR


Search the Site


E-mail




Classics To Go

Classical Values PDA Link



Archives




Recent Entries



Links



Site Credits