Tree-huggers

[Jonathan Lighter]

Who'd have thunk that the conservative epithet "tree-hugger," applied to a person who supports an environmentalist agenda, may have been inspired by an actual stress-reductive practice?

According to Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, "Hugging trees has a calming effect on me....I'm talking about enormous trees that will be there when we are all dead and gone. I've hugged trees in every part of this little island....[A]ll I know is that it works."

In an interview with Radio Eireann's "RTE Guide" (as reported in the Daily Telegraph of July 5, 2001), Adams revealed that he has hugged trees in Tony Blair's garden, as well as at the White House when he met with President Clinton.

A later term, "panda-hugger" (a Westerner or other non-Chinese who favors generous policies toward the People's Republic of China), also exists.


JL





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