More about the tree slasher

Just wanted to call out some of the reader comments from the LA Times piece (registration not required) about the Las Vegas tree slasher that I mentioned a couple days ago:

18. I understand where this poor man is coming from. He bought his home when it had a view. New selfish neighbors planted non-native trees without regard to their neighbors with views, ruining the values. Who is selfish here - the tree slasher or the neighbors who don't care about others? The same selfish people who planted water loving plants in a desert, that's who. "Going green" means conservation - not planting water loving plants where they don't belong.

52. I live in the community where this happened and it was sickining to wake up, go for a drive and see another 20-40 trees were sawed off 4 feet from the ground. Hoffman himselg has some 18 trees on his small 6,000 square foot lot. I wonder if he or his young wife would like it if someone came and cut down all their trees? Not likely. They'd probably call the police and press charges, demanding that the tresspasser be put in jail! What is the correct jail term? It's whatever is the term that someone who steals a half-million dollars from a bank gets.

"Nevada man is guilty of killing trees"

In November, a jury convicted Hoffman, 60, on 10 charges in the destruction of nearly $250,000 worth of mesquite and other trees. He will likely face sentencing next month and could get as much as 35 years in prison.

Link.

Read the whole thing for balance. If you want balance.

ADDED: It's especially interesting that this happened after taking horticulture classes!

"On the world's list of weird foods, ortolan — a bite-size songbird roasted and gulped down whole — can claim a place of distinction."

Link.

I remember reading about this before there was an Internet. I'm just as horrified today as I was then.

"Free Spirit Spheres build lovely, spherical wooden treehouses that you enter via a suspension bridge." Link.

[Joan] Rivers has been down too many times, and too far, to think that getting the last word really counts for much. It's an apt touch to play video footage of Rivers misidentifying one star after another on the Oscar night red carpet. Celebrity, which she's courted one way or another all her professional life, is a ripe fruit waiting to rot. "Who the f- are you?" as Rivers puts it, the eternal Hollywood question.

" 'Thank-you' is a sign of weakness," she says in one of her battle mottos in the show. Women should "use sex as a weapon." Balance that hard sell with the surreal images she conjures of her own body falling apart or the cartoon lunacy of some old man's 36-hour erection on Cialis. Rivers talks tough about going after what you want, but she knows it all falls apart anyway. Laughter, finally, is what gets you through the career disappointments and a husband dead by suicide and all the rest.

Link.

I can't say I've paid close attention to Joan Rivers in recent years, but when I was young I thought she was hilarious. I love outrageous, offensive humor. The worse, the better. Part of me thinks I would love to be the garden blogger who trashes everyone's flowers on Bloom Day. "Those flowers are hideous! What a shitty garden! Another goddamn daylily? Is she fucking kidding me?" But that's just not me. (So, I guess I would actually prefer to read that blogger, rather than be him.)

The Joan Rivers show at the Plush Room sounds like fun.

In a rapid-fire hour at the Plush Room, Rivers laid waste to homeless people, stroke victims, Palestinians ("They're so ugly"), lesbian nuns, Angelina Jolie's "pelican lips," Anne Frank, Tom Cruise, crazy people, Hillary Clinton ("She's such a dyke"), Madonna's "homely children" and her own good friend Linda Carter ("that stupid bitch") and "best friend" Julie Andrews.

but it's way sold out. There's always Connie Francis. And Charlotte Rae. Seriously. Charlotte Rae. Scroll down.

When I win the lottery, I'm hiring someone who's job it will be to make sure I have tickets to all the fun, ridiculous shows that come to town that slip past my admittedly poor radar.

"He was using Kragen auto jacks to jack up the house."

Here is an update on the house that collapsed.