So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Lean'n'mean]

I recall hearing somewhere that January is the busiest time of the year for gyms and health clubs and then it tapers off in February. Gee, I wonder why.

The free trial period ends ?

 

[GHT]

The 'Christmas' tree, or fir tree, far from being a 'wretched custom' as you put it, is actually a Christian symbol of the resurrected and immortality of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps the word wretched was a tad strong, maybe the tree was a symbol from the pagan days, after all Christmas was tacked onto the yuletide celebrations of the pagans, but for me, I see exploitation by those with an agenda to sell yet more trash to be taken down and recycled, or more probably, consigned to landfill.

Absolutely.....Xmas shopping, pigging-out & shopping again on the boxing day sales is much closer to the real meaning of Christmas.
Just a reminder, only 354 shopping days before Christmas.

It's only nine weeks to Shrove Tuesday and the shops are already selling eggs and flour for the festive pancakes. Is there no respite?

 

[LizzieMaine]

You will know a corrupted society by this sign: all its merchants are arrayed behind its festivals.

 

[tonyb]

There's something about the symbolism of the Christmas tree that really seems to fit the modern Boys From Marketing approach to "tradition" -- a tree is grown and nurtured and carefully cultivated for ten years or so until it's a thing of utter natural beauty, and then it's cut down, dragged into a house, covered in festoonery that makes a mockery of that natural beauty, and then when the rite is finished, it's tossed outside to die alone and unmourned, to turn brown and brittle as blows around in the yard until the trash collectors haul its brittle, forgotten skeleton away in the spring. Merry Christmas, everyone.

There’s a TV ad that ran in regular rotation a month or so ago for some 4WD Ford vehicle. The ad shows a youngish woman and a girl-child, about 10 years old, traveling in said Ford and cutting down a small evergreen tree out in some snow-covered mountainous area and strapping the tree to the top of the vehicle. The voiceover says (close paraphrase here), you could have gone to a Christmas tree lot in town, but you have a Ford Somethingorother. And an example to set.

What example is that, exactly? Are we to think that driving a gasoline-burning vehicle into the edge of the wilderness to cut down a young coniferous tree is somehow more ecologically sensitive than buying a tree grown on a tree farm?

I’m not here to defend Christmas trees and all the rituals associated with them. I don’t much care about all that one way or the other. But I lived for a couple years right near Christmas tree farms. I drove past them frequently. They are about the only agricultural activity anywhere near them. That’s largely because the soil and the climate there don’t readily lend themselves to other crops. I find it hard to accept that cutting a tree out on national forest land is in any way more virtuous.

But, you know, they got Fords to sell.

 

[BobHufford]

^^^^^ I was thinking the same thing about that commercial. Just whose land did she get that off of anyway? The daughter doesn't look like she approved.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the environment would better be served by just leaving the tree where it is.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Christmas trees...

Paranoid men with chainsaws maraud all around in the forest-plantation-area and notch all what's green above and brown below.

Don't ever go into forest-plantation-area with green fieldjacket and brown Cord-trousers...

 

[tonyb]

...

Don't ever go into forest-plantation-area with green fieldjacket and brown Cord-trousers...

I’ll keep that in mind.

 

[belfastboy]

There’s a TV ad that ran in regular rotation a month or so ago for some 4WD Ford vehicle. The ad shows a youngish woman and a girl-child, about 10 years old, traveling in said Ford and cutting down a small evergreen tree out in some snow-covered mountainous area and strapping the tree to the top of the vehicle. The voiceover says (close paraphrase here), you could have gone to a Christmas tree lot in town, but you have a Ford Somethingorother. And an example to set.

What example is that, exactly? Are we to think that driving a gasoline-burning vehicle into the edge of the wilderness to cut down a young coniferous tree is somehow more ecologically sensitive than buying a tree grown on a tree farm?

I’m not here to defend Christmas trees and all the rituals associated with them. I don’t much care about all that one way or the other. But I lived for a couple years right near Christmas tree farms. I drove past them frequently. They are about the only agricultural activity anywhere near them. That’s largely because the soil and the climate there don’t readily lend themselves to other crops. I find it hard to accept that cutting a tree out on national forest land is in any way more virtuous.

But, you know, they got Fords to sell.

My favourite Christmas story is about my 3 brothers-in-law. All prairie good ol' boys...set out into the bush to cut down a family Christmas tree each fortified beforehand with copious amounts of antifreeze and each with a thermos in reserve. They returned many hours later, totally inebriated, without a Christmas tree AND without the axe and saw they took to cut said tree down with (lost in a snowdrift).

 

[Harp]

... trees, tinsel and baubles are as far removed from the Christmas message as you can get. At a guess, I would speculate that emigres took the wretched custom with them to the rest of the English speaking world, and from there it went viral.
Serves you right for transplanting your wretched trick or treat Halloween rubbish on us Brits.

I love Christmas trees and snow, lights, the whole kitnkaboodle of the holidays.
Halloween's a blast too, enjoy carving a jack o'lantern; and All Souls Day,
lighting a beeswax candle to guide nocturnal spirits.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

I think the environment would better be served by just leaving the tree where it is.

Since when did humans care about the enviroment ?

 

[Fading Fast]

Since the '70s, the environment in the NY/NJ region has gotten much, much better as argued by academic and scientific studies (not just my anecdotal and supporting experience living here) as to air quality, the waters, littering and pollution. The change has been dramatic.

 

[tonyb]

I love Christmas trees and snow, lights, the whole kitnkaboodle of the holidays.

...

I'm fine with it, too, provided I'm not the one putting it all up and taking it all down.

I mentioned a few weeks back how we have a couple of large plastic storage bins full of Christmas swag. Nice stuff, too -- vintage and more modern pieces alike. The dewy-eyed bride wanted me to bling out the house this past holiday season. (Her physical disabilities leave her pretty much incapable of doing it herself.) She was rather stern in her alerting me to her desires to not let her residence go unfestooned for another holiday season. I have been forewarned.

 

[Harp]

I'm fine with it, too, provided I'm not the one putting it all up and taking it all down.

...I quite agree.

 

[Zombie_61]

I think the environment would better be served by just leaving the tree where it is.

Yeah, but they haven't figured out how to sell Fords by doing that.

 

[Sheeen]

I would leave a tree alone too. But there's always someone next door who won't.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Since the '70s, the environment in the NY/NJ region has gotten much, much better as argued by academic and scientific studies (not just my anecdotal and supporting experience living here) as to air quality, the waters, littering and pollution. The change has been dramatic.

I'll say that of the big cities I've spent any amount of time in, New York smells less bad than any of the rest. I wouldn't go back to Los Angeles without my gas mask. Boston has also improved dramatically since the '70s -- you don't see quite so many rats in the subway as you did when I was a kid, which has to count for something.

There has been research suggesting that the general vileness of most American cities in the late sixties/early seventies ties into the excessively high levels of lead in the atmosphere during that period from auto emissions -- a time when the use of leaded gasoline was at its all time peak. Extended exposure to high levels of atmospheric lead has been proven to make people stupid, aggressive, and violent -- and along with that would go a general disregard for one's environment. The general improvement in the liveability of most cities over recent decades does correlate quite nicely with the elimination of that excessive lead from the atmosphere. Sure, sure, "correlation is not causation," but it's certainly an interesting coincidence.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yeah, but they haven't figured out how to sell Fords by doing that.

Ever notice how the people who drive those jacked-up ferocious-looking, Off Road Vehicles are always the kind of characters who are least likely to go within ten feet of the woods at any time. And conversely, the real Mark Trail types always seem to drive around in old Volvo station wagons.

 

[Fading Fast]

I'll say that of the big cities I've spent any amount of time in, New York smells less bad than any of the rest. I wouldn't go back to Los Angeles without my gas mask. Boston has also improved dramatically since the '70s -- you don't see quite so many rats in the subway as you did when I was a kid, which has to count for something.

There has been research suggesting that the general vileness of most American cities in the late sixties/early seventies ties into the excessively high levels of lead in the atmosphere during that period from auto emissions -- a time when the use of leaded gasoline was at its all time peak. Extended exposure to high levels of atmospheric lead has been proven to make people stupid, aggressive, and violent -- and along with that would go a general disregard for one's environment. The general improvement in the liveability of most cities over recent decades does correlate quite nicely with the elimination of that excessive lead from the atmosphere. Sure, sure, "correlation is not causation," but it's certainly an interesting coincidence.

All of my comments are based on a general reading of newspapers and my personal experience living here, i.e., I am not expert. I think what you said about lead is part of the story, but a lot more good things also went on environmentally. Companies had been dumping waste (medical, chemicals and everything else) into the waters that ended up making them look and smell terrible along with all that cr*p washing up on beaches. Improvement there has been dramatic - seemingly 90%+ better - major rivers look and smell better, fish have returned and people can now swim in them (ditto beaches).

Also, factories and refineries, of which there are a surprising number still functioning in this area, are clearly polluting less based both on what I read and what I've seen with my own eyes driving by and riding by on trains (where, not surprisingly, many factories and refineries are adjacent). The air is clearly better as can be noticed most on "heavy" days (high humidity, no wind). To your point about NYC smelling better than other cities, while it doesn't feel like it, being an island gives it great airflow most of the time so it is "refreshed" more than some other cities.

Also, littering has improved dramatically (or the reduction in littering has) both from increased policing and social conventions having changed. Add all the improvements up and the NY region's environment in significantly improved versus the '70s. As to the social-crime issue, your point could absolutely be part of the story, but (and I know this is controversial, so I acknowledge it is my opinion as someone who lived through it, not fact) I believe the increase in policing (more police put on the street, better engagement between the police and the local communities and more enforcement of "smaller" crimes and misdemeanors) was a meaningful part of the improvement.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Christmas trees...

Paranoid men with chainsaws maraud all around in the forest-plantation-area and notch all what's green above and brown below.

Don't ever go into forest-plantation-area with green fieldjacket and brown Cord-trousers...