Thousands of us all around you.
We protect you all the time,
Yet you treat us badly...

You burn us in public buildings
to make you seem better;

You try to make us straight,
but most of us refuse usually;

When we are dead, you are pleased.
Yet, when we are gone, you are sad.

What are we?

(In reply to Solution :) by Heartberry)

I think it is very obvious that it is trees, and even more obvious it is not hair. Consider this, we are happy when trees die, because we killed it for another purpose, if trees did not die when we try to kill them for wood or whatever, we would be in a tough spot. However, if your hair dies, you may be happy you still have hair on your head, but your happiness is not an effect of the hairs' death. Provable by the fact that we are happy that our other hairs don't die, not that the hair in question does die. Clever answer though. And do many people blow dry hair in public? I don't know if that is true. I have never seen it in any case. Maybe government housing is a public building, and this refers to the inhabitants of such a place? And the statement "Most of us refuse usually" i think nullifies the hair straightening, since most attempts at hair straightening nowadays are successful.

Posted by Kerry on 2004-06-04 18:57:53