You are one crazy lady Liz. ROTFLMAO George, who used to be a weekend SAM At 11:08 AM 5/1/98 +0000, you wrote: >Margaret Lauterbach <gardeners@globalgarden.com> wrote: > > >> Margaret, still smarting over one facetious, and one outlandish answer to >> my query about what selectively defoliates wormwood then puts on its hiking >> boots and hikes 40 feet to defoliate a volunteer sagebrush (A. tridentata). > >Since you've already gotten one facetious answer... > >My first thought was your problem was with the hitherto unsung Stone >Age Masochist Bug -- so named for it's habits and date of evolution. >The SAM Bug was first discovered on the campuses of some better known >universities in the early 1960's -- the true Stone Age of American >culture. As you might guess, the SAM Bug of that era enjoyed nothing >quite so much as a toke on a doobie and was frequently found >reclining in groups of 5 or 6 on the campus green wearing bizarrely >bright clothing, listening to Jimi Hendrix and Doors albums that >only they could hear. > >The first large, defoliating collection of SAM Bugs was found in San >Francisco in the Haight-Ashbury district. Up until that time the SAM >bug was known colloquially as the D*mn Stoners. Upon congregating >and partaking of large numbers of tokes, then dropping bits of paper >with cartoon characters in their mouths, the DS Bugs discovered that >they liked to eat once a week, bathe once a month, and attempt to >create new DS Bugs. These activities required the cooperation of >females. DS Bugs were nearly all males. It has taken entymologists >many years to unravel the mystery of what happened next. > >These DS Bugs used their 4 and a half living braincells to give >tokes of doobie to future female SAM bugs. They stoned those >gals. After Stoning, those females believed that it was a Good Thing >(yes, that's where MS stole the phrase) to cook food, sorta keep >house and be Mom and Lover to the DS Bugs. That's the "what" side of >the story. The "Why" is still under investigation by historical >entymologists. At any rate, soon hovels arose across the country in >which the new female DS Bugs demostrated their inherit masochism >while feeding and otherwise kowtowing to the lazy, dirty male DS >Bugs. In the words of one male DS bugs "We were Kings in those >days". It is the actions of these females that put the Masochist >in the more correct term Stone Age Masochist Bugs. > >Now you know the enemy. There is an obvious explanation to what >happened to your shrubs. It almost embarrasses me to point it out. > >You artemesia was defoliated by a deliberate attempt of SAM Bugs to >get high. This might have been inspired by a showing of >Tolouse-Latrec prints in the state Art Gallery and by the absence of >absinthe. Invigorated by the consumption of your artemesia and it's >effects, the SAM Bugs wandered around your yard looking at all the >pretty, shiny colors while saying "Hey, Man" and "Cool". After a >while the SAMs realized they were hungry but, lucky, were sitting >right next to what they believed, in their stoned condition, was a >large pizza and pitcher of beer. They sat down to a righteous meal >of pepperoni and Bud. Unfortunately for you and your sagebrush, they >were very stoned and didn't realize that it was a sagebrush rather >than a a pizza with extra oregano. Unfortunately for them, and the >reason that you have not had any more attacks, is that large >quantities of sagebrush are a real downer. > >My advice is to go out there and stomp around on the ground near your >sagebrush. SAM bugs are notoriously lazy and probably didn't wander >far so you should be able to squash them all. If you are concerned >that you might not have gotten them all, go sit upon the ground and >read Kafka to them. It'll bore them to death and they'll be so busy >saying "cool" they won't even notice the danger. Plus, it's an >organic remedy. > >Liz > >