AP--(Oregon)Search on for missing Ore. Christmas tree cutters
C'mon. Really? Really?
I sure hope the diabetic tree-hunter and his non-camper wife get found soon, because they have a couple of kids who are waiting for them to come home.
But really. Is there any way we can convince people to avoid trying the very obviously stupid attractions life can offer? Like, say, carnival games? Or credit card debt at 28% interest? Or going up into the high snowy mountain wilderness hunting for a Christmas tree?
Again, my hopes are riding on those Oregon State helicopters looking for this poor couple. But for heaven's sake, if they get found, they should also be put in stocks in the public square and forced to wear forest-green dunce-caps for at least a full day.
What sort of fatuous impetuosity propelled them to take the family Subaru and go up into the inhospitable snowy wastes of the Cascade Mountains in winter, hoping to find the type of tree associated with pagan Yule celebrations (attached inexplicably to the High Christian Holiday since the Victorian era), but especially the type of tree favored by ancient barbarian Teutons that also happens to grow only at the peaks of wilderness mountains? And especially if one of them were diabetic (one supposes the hunter of exotic trees was also a hunter of Angus Third Pounders)?
I cannot imagine a suitable mindset. Not for a parent. For a loner, or any unattached adult for that matter, fine: go up in the woods, get lost, die if you must, it's your life and your fate alone. But if you've got a couple of kids at home, and you drive off into the wilderness looking for a very temporary living room decoration in the middle of winter, you are probably a perfect idiot. Proof? Here is the proof: last year the same couple got stuck for four hours in the Cascadian Siskiyou forest also looking for a Christmas tree. So this year they figured, why not try it again? And let's hope for their kids' sake they get real lucky again, with the search helicopters burning taxpayer fuel droning on and on and on. . .
On a related note, a recent story in Science News (on line) noted that snowflakes can sometimes be triangular and the microscopic photos of same were, in the true sense of the word, wonderful.
Small comfort for the frostbitten.
Finally, a totally unrelated note. I have noticed that the Google Ads appearing in this blog seem to mistake my mention of Republicans and right wingers for support--and therefore, there seem no small number of ads for Palin's book or donation to the gubernatorial efforts of the Texan Kaye Bailey Hutchinson. No comment.
