Tree planted to honor George Harrison killed by beetles
A pine tree planted in Los Angeles to honor Beatle George Harrison has been killed by beetles, according to media reports.
After Harrison died in Los Angeles in 2001, the tree was planted near the Griffith Observatory, according to an Associated Press report cited in SFGate. There was also a small plaque installed at the base to commemorate the musician who was known for his interest in gardening, the report said.
According to the Telegraph newspaper, the plaque included the inscription, “In memory of a great humanitarian who touched the world as an artist, a musician and a gardener.” It also featured a quote from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, saying, “For the forest to be green each tree must be green.”
However, a bark beetle infestation led to the removal of the tree last month, Los Angeles Councilman Tom LaBonge told the AP.
But the tree will be replanted in the fall, according to the AP.
—Ben Pimentel
Great video.
The Concert for Bangladesh was/is my all time favorite movie of a live concert. Harrison, Dylan, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Clapton…and all the great sidemen of the era.
Beetles killed the tree? My sweet Lord, ain’t that cute! Why couldn’t they just let it be? Oh well … all things must pass living in this material world. So sad. Really.
You should see the devastation caused by the pine bark beetle in Northern BC; tens of thousands of acres, all standing dead trees. It has given rise to new industries which salvage the material.
I got to attend the launch and recovery of a NASA U2 spy plane (in the chase car) which NASA uses for research. They had been contracted by the govt of Canada to provide surveys of bark beetle damage over western Canada.
I-S, do you mean ER-2?
I’m not sure what the official variant is. NASA has two of them. This was about 1994 or so.
My boss at the time was a C-141 navigator flying out of March AFB I think. The boss took a day off and late in the day called me to pick up him and a friend of his at a bar. They were on a bike trek and suffered a mechanical breakdown. I sat and had a beer with them before taking them to the bosses house. As I was leaving the boss asked if I wanted to take the next day off and go launch a U-2. Took about 1/2 a second to say hell yeah! Turns out his friend was the pilot.
We met him at the life support facility at Fairchild AFB the next day as he suited up in the space suit then followed him out in the chase car, did a FOD run down the runway both ways before launching the plane. We goofed off for a while while he flew the mission and waited for a call to come back for the recovery.
I never asked about it but that thing had one hell of a climb rate. As soon as they got wheels up it was gone!
I’d like to see NASA’s RB-57 plane take off some time. I think they operate the very last flying versions of the B-57 Canberra and that is my favorite plane. I’m sure they’ve changed things but thay used to use a big black powder start cartridge to get the engines running. Listening to the engines spool up to idle speed was great and a sound I’ll never forget. Last I heard the AF had contracted the RB-57 to fly a new theater wide communications system over Afghanistan.
This is a beautiful shot of an EB-57 Canberra.
[/img]
[img