A supposedly true story...
In a local county courthouse the Clerk of Court hated fake Christmas
trees, so he always put up a real tree in the Clerk's office every
year. One year the Fire Marshal happened to do a building inspection
of the courthouse just before Christmas, while the Clerk was out to
lunch, and noticed the tree. In the belief that the tree represented a
fire hazard, he proceeded to write a citation for a violation of the
fire code, which prohibited "live" trees in a public building, and
gave it to the Clerk's assistant.
When the Clerk returned from lunch and was given the citation, he hit
the roof. Determined that no Fire Marshal was going to spoil his
Christmas, he decided to fight the citation. So he went to the morgue
in the adjoining police station, and asked the Coroner for his help.
The Coroner came over and put a toe tag on the tree, listing the cause
of death as "Being cut off at ground level".
The Clerk called the Fire Marshal back to re-inspect, and showed him
the toe tag on the tree. He told him that when the Coroner pronounces
something "dead", it is *legally* dead, and therefore the citation for
having a "live" tree was obviously in error, and wasn't worth the
paper it was written on.
The Fire Marshal thought about it, and came to the realization that,
since he would have to pursue the fire code violation in that very
courtroom, this was probably one argument he wasn't going to win. So
he let them have their tree.
THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT TRIUMPHS OVER THE GRINCHES OF THE WORLD ONCE