Irene: Tree Assassin

Three is, of course, a trend: The “controversial” Mansion Elm in Brooklyn Heights, a “symbol of survival” against development in the East Village, and even a “vagina tree” in McCarren Park all fall to the tree assassin that was Irene, the last of which evoking some cringe-inducing imagery in the Brooklyn Paper:

The sexy neighborhood curiosity near Bedford Avenue and the McCarren Park tennis courts has attracted a Foursquare page and even hosts its own Twitter feed, @TheVaginaTree.

But Irene’s furiously swirling winds licked the tree forcefully enough to snap it just above its waist on Sunday. All that remains is a spent stump.

The Foursquare’s account is now “closed.” On Monday night, the tree Tweeted what might be its last message: “I am the stump formerly known as Vagina Tree.”

Then there are those who quietly celebrated Irene’s ruthless instinct:

The fear of god kept an observant Jewish family from chopping down a despised fruit tree, so it took an act of god — Hurricane Irene’s winds of fury — to answer the prayers of neighbors on a small Midwood block.

On Saturday, Irene huffed and puffed and blew down a giant mulberry tree on E. 27th Street between Avenue I and Campus Road that for years had dropped sticky fruit on neighbors’ cars and littered the sidewalk with a tacky, dark-purple paste that made residents walk in the street to avoid stepping in the mess.

“Everybody hated that tree,” said [a 73-year-old neighbor].

Including the people who owned it, who for years refused to take the ax to the behemoth out of fear that god would smite them.