I was at a garden center a while back, and my wife and I were going to
buy a tree.

"How about this spruce?" she asks. "Naw." After a lot of prodding, I
say "I prefer a yew."

When I think of spruce, I think of cheap 2x4 lumber. When I see an
arborvitae (Thuja), I think of durable, rot-resistant fencing material.
When I see a yew, I think of elvish bows. When I see a box (Buxus), I
think of hard durable tool handles. So everything other than spruce
feels a bit more noble to me.

So it ends up that my opinion of the tree is biased by the wood. Not
that I would ever cut them up and use the lumber.

We ended up with a yew. In hindsight, I think a spruce would have been
prettier with its conical shape; my yew is just this blob right now.

Sigh.

- Daniel