From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Sat Jun 08 2002 - 17:45:46 MDT
"sylvia m." wrote:
>
> the other problem was the vines that grew on the wire fence at the back
> of the garden. they were zealous and hardy, and everywhere. they were
> VERY pretty, but tended to take over and choke other plants. the vines
> curled around the lilacs like pythons. the vines skated across
> flower/weed beds so floridly and obnoxiously that other things became
> weak. so she asked me to cut back the vines on the fence. so i did.
>
> while i was doing this, a lady from the other side of the fence
> criticised me, and said that she was native and was against plants being
> slaughtered for no reason, that the plants were beautiful and i should
> not cut them. i was not very nice about it. i pronounced loudly and
> with conviction "My GRANDMOTHER told me to do this.".
>
> i still have this niggling aweful feeling that i made a huge mistake
> somehow but i am not sure how.
Nope. Sylvia, you did a great thing in the battle for social politeness.
Your only omission, I think, would be that you could have pointed out
that vines that tend to choke out life like that also tend to be
NON-native species which DON'T belong in your area, so you were actually
doing a good thing for the natural environment. Telling a nincompoop to
go stuff herself was entirely appropriate.
I ran into one such the other day at the pet store. My parent's
chocolate lab has a real problem with barking at anyone or anything that
passes by their house, and she is extremely powerful and hard for my
mother to manage when she has to be taken out to do her business (fences
are banned by zoning). So, I was shopping for a new ultra-sonic dog
collar to help control her barking. She had one previously but the case
broke and I'd repaired it several times. It was effective while worn,
and isn't particularly offensive like those electric shocking collars
are.
Anyhoo, while I was talking to the sales manager about what I needed and
what they had, a young kooky woman entered the store and started walking
around, stating loudly that she was looking for animals to take to the
wild to set free and that the store should "liberate it's prisoners from
their cells". She came up to me and asked if she could have my pet to
set free. I responded by saying that I was only there to buy a pekingese
to cook up for some stir fry for dinner.... she went out, gagging into
the night....
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