dogwood source

[Phillip Gregory]

Phillip, interesting that you're able to harvest Cedar of Lebanon near you; it's native to the Eastern Mediterranean although I know that specimen trees were planted elsewhere (England, for example.)

Dogwood, however, isn't native to that area (Middle East).

It was a couple of regional jokes and Nick Decker got them. The part about "eye farty far" refers to many St. Louisans with their nasal accents would pronounce 44 as "farty far" rather than "forty four." Those of us who grew up outside of St. Louis and its inner suburbs but close enough to the metro area to know they talked that way enjoy making fun of their unusual accent.