ROME — No sooner had workers hoisted a 72-foot tall Norway spruce in Rome’s central Piazza Venezia this month than the mocking began. 
 
 The tree was quickly nicknamed Spelacchio, or Mangy, because so many of its dead needles were dropping off, leaving the tree looking a bit bare. Chatter spread quickly on social media where Romans traded jokes about the spruce and criticized its sad appearance. 
 
 Insults quickly turned to intrigue as the Italian media plumbed the tree’s costs, questioned how it had been transported to the city and analyzed its state of health. 
 
 “It has clearly been traumatized,” one expert declared. 
 
 A consumer rights group asked an administrative court, which has oversight over government spending, to investigate what it described as a “shameful spectacle for citizens and tourists” and demanded that the tree be removed immediately. ||||| ROME — If the paragon of all Christmas trees is the one in front of the Rockefeller Center in New York — first erected, mind you, by an Italian in 1931 — the prize for most pitiful must go to the one that stands in Rome’s Piazza Venezia this year. Just days after it was put up, it began to gray and shed its needles, and soon it had become nearly see-through. The tree cuts so sad and forlorn a figure that it has been nicknamed Spelacchio, or Mangy. 
 
 Spelacchio arrived in Rome early this month from the Trentino region, near Italy’s border with Austria, and what with transport expenses and decorations, the 70-foot fir is estimated to have cost Italian taxpayers 48,000 euros, or $57,000. It’s not clear what has ailed it. Maybe Spelacchio was unsettled by the trip; perhaps it was ill on departure. By way of explanation, Antimo Palumbo, a tree historian who was standing by Spelacchio’s side on Friday morning, pointed at the concrete all over its roots. “You see that?” he told me. “They decided to pour the concrete to keep it steady, but that killed it instead.” 
 
 There isn’t enough time, money or political will to replace the tree, and so Spelacchio the Mangy will stay in Piazza Venezia through the holidays, and for many locals it has already become a metaphor for what’s wrong with the city, and the country. 
 
 Traffic in Rome is chronically congested, public transport is inefficient, trash collection is slow and sporadic. Early hopes about Virginia Raggi, who was elected mayor last year on an anti-establishment agenda, promptly faded amid familiar allegations of corruption and nepotism. ||||| By Doug Powers • November 8, 2011 10:59 PM 
 
 **Written by Doug Powers 
 
 When I read that the federal government was getting involved in the Christmas tree industry, I couldn’t believe the first order of business wasn’t to remove the word “Christmas” from the name. Maybe that’ll come later, but for now the Obama administration is trying to help during a down economy, which of course involves a new business fee, which will cost consumers more. I can feel that recession lifting already. 
 
 From Heritage.org: 
 
 President Obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees — the Christmas Tree Tax — to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees. In the Federal Register of November 8, 2011, Acting Administrator of Agricultural Marketing David R. Shipman announced that the Secretary of Agriculture will appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board. The purpose of the Board is to run a “program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace; maintain and expend existing markets for Christmas trees; and to carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry” (7 CFR 1214.46(n)). And the program of “information” is to include efforts to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States” (7 CFR 1214.10). 
 
 The fee is 15 cents on all fresh trees for growers who sell more than 500 trees a year, a cost that will no doubt be passed along to consumers. 
 
 I looked around a little and found an article in the Miami Herald that goes into this more from the growers’ perspective. The alleged point of the fee… or tax… or levy… whatever — is to stem the growth of the artificial tree industry to promote the sale of real trees (by making them a little more expensive?): 
 
 Akin to similar programs that promote milk, beef and cotton, the new Christmas tree program will impose on U.S. domestic producers and importers an initial fee of 15 cents per tree. A 12-member board will direct the money to generic ads and other promotions, as well as research. The promotions, according to the Agriculture Department, will present “a favorable image of Christmas trees to the general public,” with the intent of improving the public “perception” of Christmas trees and, hence, their sales. 
 
 Okay, the betting pool starts here: How long will it be until the first “Federal Christmas tree tax” waiver is issued? Probably when the first Christmas tree farm is unionized. 
 
 If real tree sales don’t pick up as a result of this initiative, look for a “cash for artificial tree clunkers” program to be introduced by next Christmas to get the faux alternatives off the streets. 
 
 Update: Implementation of the 15 cent per tree fee is reported to be delayed. Does this mean a couple months of President Obama going around the country saying “pass this Christmas tree jobs fee”? 
 
 **Written by Doug Powers 
 
 Twitter @ThePowersThatBe 
 
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– Rome wasn't built in a day, but it looks like its Christmas tree may have been. The "toilet brush" of a tree now standing in one of the city's busiest public squares and being roundly mocked in Italy and around the world makes Charlie Brown's Christmas tree look lush by comparison. The New York Times reports that the 72-foot-tall Norway spruce erected in the Piazza Venezia and nicknamed "Spelacchio," or "Mangy," will cost the city about $57,000 in all—and locals are outraged that so much money was outlayed for a tree that one expert says "has clearly been traumatized." Thrillist documents some of the online reaction to the sad, needle-sparse spruce, which it calls a "balding network of pines and brittle branches." "Maybe the dogs drank all the water in the tree stand?" one amused viewer tweeted, while another offered a backhanded compliment: "Big fan of Rome's Christmas tree for looking how we all feel." Others defend the tree, saying it looks OK when it's lit up at night. "We are all Spelacchio!" one supporter told a local paper. Per the Times, the tree even has a few Facebook accounts and a Twitter handle in its name, with one tweet proclaiming: "I have more followers than branches." A consumer rights group that calls the tree a "shameful spectacle for citizens and tourists" is lobbying to have the tree taken down and has asked a local court to scrutinize the tree's costs. Rome's mayor says her office is also looking into TreeGate.