A little bit of this, a little bit of that and a few things I learned on the way to someplace else.

Not all pines created equal

A few years ago, I wrote that all you see on the long, back roads ride to my childhood home are pine trees and pickup trucks.

It was not a criticism. I love pine trees and understand the appeal of trucks.

But after listening to Janisse Ray, the brilliant writer who spoke at last week’s Friends of the LaGrange College Library dinner, I will look at those pine trees with new eyes. Ray’s appreciation for the southern landscape is limitless. So is her concern for its future. The South is at a crossroads, she said, and the present pace of change is alarming.

“We are in transition…this is a scene from a rocket window,” she said.

I’ve done my share of lamenting the “vanishing South.” But the disappearance of pine forests - majestic longleaf pines and the biologically diverse understory they support - is something to which I’ve given too little thought.

Blame those other pine trees. Much is disappearing, but Georgia has no shortage of trees, I’ve always comforted myself. Pines are everywhere, every cotton-picking where.

The passionate Ms. Ray, who won praise and awards for her elegant book of essays, “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood,” explained the pine tree problem in a way that, for the first time, made sense to me. We’ve got plenty of pines, but very few longleafs left. The magnificent longleaf, in fact, is among the most endangered ecosystems in North America, down from 90 million acres decades ago to 3 million acres now. In its place we have suburbs, shopping centers and loblollies - pines genetically engineered to grow fast and produce pulp.

Loblollies are fine trees and serve a purpose. But all pines are not created equal. The loblollies can’t do for nature what the longleafs have done for centuries. Hence the danger.

Even people who don’t share all her conclusions find themselves impressed by Janisse Ray. Her powerful sense of place resonates. She has a passion that is powerful, but voiced gently and poetically in an accent that is familiar and appreciated.

Janisse Ray’s painful truths come marching home in beautiful words, eloquent sentences. A better balance must be found - or the longleaf ecosystem will be gone. Reforestation is essential.

Because, as another poet almost said, long ago, only God can make a longleaf pine.

Read ‘em and weep

Some Internet wit with a well-developed sense of the absurd has put together a list entitled “Headlines for the year 2029.”

A lot of us won’t be around to see if they come true. Once you read them, you may decide that’s a good thing, certainly all the more reason to laugh and enjoy them now. Or, perhaps more aptly, laugh to keep from crying.

Here are a few:

• Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest country in the world, Mexifornia, formerly known as California .

• Couple petitions court to reinstate heterosexual marriage.

• Iran still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least 10 more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels

• Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesdays only.

• 85-year $75.8 billion study: Diet and exercise is the key to weight loss.

• Average weight of Americans drops to 250 lbs.

• Senate still blocking drilling in ANWR even though gas is selling for 4,532 pesos per liter and gas stations are only open on Tuesdays and Fridays..

• Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative.

• Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals violates their civil rights.

• New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters and rolled-up newspapers must be registered by January 2030.

Readers may contact Andrea Lovejoy at editor@lagrangenews.com