On 11/11/2019 6:28 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 11 Nov 2019 15:51:56 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 11/11/2019 12:32 PM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:


How about those who have green lawns in a desert? What a waste of the most precious commodity a desert has = water.

Agreed!

I've spent considerable time wondering why we have lawns at all. I mean,
what a weird thing - whack down all the native vegetation, clear it out,
plant something that really doesn't want to grow here, spend hours (or
hire someone) to chop it to a socially approved height, remove or poison
anything else that might want to grow there, pay for water and chemicals...

The answers I've found are more complex than one might think, probably
going back to eastern Africa.


But how else can one play croquet? Or Bowls? Which was apparently
played as far back as the Middle Ages.

Around here, with a large number of Italian descent, "bowls" is called
Bocce. The target ball is called the "Pauline," at least in our family.
(I don't know if that's capitalized or not.)

But there's a high degree of randomness in the play. None of the
siblings have a lawn that's the least bit smooth, and bounces and
deflections are wildly erratic. Body english isn't nearly enough to get
the ball to go where you want. "Magic words" are necessary pretty often
- usually, after a miss. ;-)


--
- Frank Krygowski