Insignificant in history, this event. Mundane in the development. Financially hard pressed City of Toronto funded the killing and transport of the corpse of a 60' White Spruce to be erected in the Nathan Phillip Square.
CITY-TV covered the event, minute by minute in the triumphant gloat of barbarians dancing. Showing the patent ignorance of the usual urbanites, they bought the line of that this tree was nearing the end of its life cycle
At maturity, the typical White Spruce will reach up to 100 feet high, with a maximum height at 20 years of 100 feet. Which means that somehow this particular tree was only about 60% of its life's average growth. It is not a big tree but a small tree. The city boys killed a runt.
Apparently though they missed the irony. We will never know the life span of this tree because it was murdered before it could reach it.
One more suitable irony though. From Wikipedia comes this interesting and appropriate quote. "The tree is sometimes colloquially known as the "skunk spruce" due to the disagreeable smell emitted by its needles when crushed."
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NOTE TO: CITY OF TORONTO
Do not crush the needles of your very young, formerly healthy, tragically-murdered-in-the-prime-of-life, teeny-tiny, blandly-non-denominational runt of a celebratory, soon-to-be-decorated-winter-tree.
There are worse things you could be called than 'Hogtown' by those living in the outer reaches of the vast, totally-unknown-to-you, surrounding universe.
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