pathetic snipping

Saturday night we cooked out at the Bridge House, the family camp of one of our friends and one of the oldest houses on the island. It was the first grilling of the season -- still too cold to eat outside but warm enough to kick around a soccer ball at sunset.

After dinner I was snooping around some bookshelves and found a set of Illustrated Encyclopedias from 1961. Volume 8 is dedicated almost entirely to gardening, and contains the following priceless introduction to pruning:

"Pruning is an acquired art. Without adequate understanding, men are apt to commit a kind of tree and shrub butchery in its name, while ladies are likely to approach their victims with such tender hearts that the few pathetic snips they make are ineffective."


Hmm. I wonder which is worse. Tender-hearted snips?

Or BUTCHERY.