In Paris… the French are gawking at the Arc de Triumph.  A massive stone war memorial in the heart of paris…that’s been completely covered with silver cloth.

It’s a massive art project that will draw millions of people to stare over the next two weeks.

Meantime in California… they’re wrapping another monument.  A living monument.  This project is anything but art.

National Parks workers wrapped the base of The General Sherman Tree.  the mightest of the Giant Sequoias… it’s 2500 years old.  It’s as tall as the tip of the dome on the Utah State Capitol Building.  Wildfire’s but a single mile away from the famous grove of giant sequoias… and to protect the legendary tree…. they’vey’ve wrapped the base of the trunk in tin foil.

To imagine this… think of a wooden baseball bat.   Now imagine putting tin foil around that little lip at the very bottom of the bat.  That’s what it looks like and what it seems like … is an exersize in futility.   They’re protecting the mightiest tree in the world with an aluminum foil miniskirt.

And it turns out that aluminum foil is a thing in California this summer.  Some nervous homeowners have wrapped-up their entire homes in silvery foil.  Every inch from the ground up inc including the entire roof … the doors and the windows.  That much fire resistant aluminum foil will run you $6000.

In Paris… they’d call that art.   But in California… it’s called desperation.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.