I was in horticulture for way too long and have been angry at a lot of plants that were doing nothing more than just being plants.
There was the rose that gave me cellulitis, the yucca plant that cut the @#$%! out of me, the pyracantha that helped me understand why it is called "firethorn," numerous greenbriars, the dead dogwood that fell the wrong way and nearly freakin' killed me, the patches of juniper that housed black widows, mosquitoes, yellow jackets, and snakes (and, on top of that, made me itch all by themselves,) and the inevitable poison oak and ivy. This is by no means an exhaustive list, just the "Most Unwanted."
I have a stack of books that tell me that they're "just plants," but I really just had to observe each of those little bat-turds once in its natural habitat to know to leave them the heck alone.
Likewise, I know that rosemary makes my hands smell good when I touch it and lettuce is nice with some dressing. Neither alter my mental state whatsoever. I can drive with rosemary on my hands and a salad in my bloodstream.
Does all of this really need to be explained?
Drugs are for losers. (Where the @#$! is my Xanax...I'm tired of arguing about this...
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