Superb cartoon by Ariel Molvig in The New Yorker, August 25 '08. :: I was much aggrieved to hear a former Congressman — can't remember his name, I'm sorry — paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln (on how to vote in the forthcoming US Presidential election) by saying something along the lines of: 'Abraham Lincoln would say, vote for the best candidate, irregardless of ...'
I am also much aggrieved that my computer doesn't register that egregious word as impossible, or at least a mistake, by instantly putting a red dotted line under it.
NB: I am prepared to look kindly on the offending former Congressman as he is a Republican who is determined to vote for Obama. Seems there are a lot of them, which kind of gives you hope ...
:: The US equivalent of our Returned Services League is the organisation called Veterans of Foreign Wars. But isn't the word 'foreign' redundant in its name? There cannot be any vets of the Civil War still breathing, and how many other wars have Americans fought on home turf?
:: I read in the LA Times that singer Ricky Martin has paid a woman to be a surrogate mother. She has just delivered his twins. And he has just taken delivery of them.
:: We still have not heard from the local Home Owners' Association, who sent us a very nice letter a few weeks ago, headed 'A polite request', telling us that our browning front lawn was upsetting the neighbourhood and affecting house values, so would we please water it more often.
We wrote back surprisingly promptly, explaining to the nice people at the HOA that Governor Schwarzenegger had long ago declared a statewide drought, and that we were watering our lawn with the same frequency with which we watered our lawns at home in Perth, which has twice the rainfall.
We lightly, and respectfully, told the HOA that grass was as tough as old boots and that a slightly browning, thinning front lawn was okay in summer and not nearly as worrying as the sight of hundreds of thousands of gallons of drinking water running down our gutters every day from over-watered lawns and gardens.
We lightly and respectfully suggested the HOA call in experts in waterwise gardening to tell home-owners how to landscape without grass and with gravel and pavers instead.
As I said, we're awaiting a reply.
6 comments:
lol... Your HOA is no doubt dazed and confused by your ability to THINK and reason. Our landlord likes to pretend we live in the tropics, and keeps everything soggy, at our expense. The waste is appalling.
A brown lawn is the sign of a waterwise owner. It is a badge of disgrace to have a lush green lawn in most of Australia.
We had a landlord in Perth who insisted we had the full reticulation on everyday - she argued it was a bore, and therefore didn't matter. Since then the water restrictions have changed and now also apply to bores. Some people have no sense at all.
Keep us updated on progress with this!
Aaargh, Homeowners, Associations in the US sound completely batty to me. Let your lawn brown and your washing hang free!
I should think the HOA would realise there were more factors driving house prices down than a browning front lawn!
If your neighbours lived in a UK area where drought had been declared, they would find themselves up in court and facing hefty fines for misuse of water. You might want to point that out to your HOA.
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