On Front Lawns and Gardening

Seth Godin wrote this to illustrate a blog post related to status:

The front lawn was only invented around the time of Columbus. The idea was to demonstrate that you had time and money to waste. You could take useful land and make it non-productive. You could take labor and put it to work taking care of this non-productive land with no obvious utility in return. A big front lawn, well cared for, was a sign of status and luxury.

(Source here.)

An AI model disagreed with the first sentence.

...lawns existed in some form before Columbus, but the "front lawn" as we know it today is a much more recent invention, popularized in the 1800s, not the 1400s

Seth nailed it in the lawns as symbol of status.

Popular posts from this blog

Eisenhower Quote About “Making a Sucker Out of Uncle Sam”

We are carrying practically the whole weight of the strategic deterrent force, also conducting space activities, and atomic programs. We paid for most of the infrastructure, and maintain large air and naval forces as well as six divisions. He thinks the Europeans are close to “making a sucker out of Uncle Sam”; so long as they could prove a need for emergency help, that was one thing. But that time has passed. Source: " Memorandum of Conference With President Eisenhower ",  November 4, 1959 . This is related to European defense and NATO contributions.
»

Old Books: "My Arctic Journal: A Year Among Ice-fields and Eskimos"

Image
The author dressed in a coat made of caribou skin ( kooletah ) - Photo from the book. This book is interesting - like most journals from explorers are -, especially for those fond to outdoors adventures like I am.  My Arctic journal: a year among ice-fields and Eskimos  opens a window to the Greenland of 1891-1892. It was written by Josephine Diebitsch Peary, wife of the Arctic explorer Robert E. Peary. A keen observer, she provided many details about the life of the Eskimos - the Inuit. She even reported an event of domestic violence: Ikwa has beat Mané so badly that she cannot come out of her tent; her head is cut and bruised, and one eye is completely closed. I also found free downloads of the book  here .
»

Bukowski: Poetry from the Dirty Side of Life

Image
Keyboard of Woodstock typewriter from the 1940s - Public Domain. Source: Wikipedia Commons.  Charles Bukowski was not your common poet. Harsh, irreverent, sometimes offensive. A bard from the underworld. A rulebreaker revealing realities through the unadorned language of the streets.  On poetry, he screams in "O We Are The Outcasts". ah, christ, what a CREW: more poetry, always more P O E T R Y. "What Can We Do?" attacks our humanity.  when activated it's best at brutality, selfishness, unjust judgments, murder. Human beings are not spared in "The Genius Of The Crowd". there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average human being to supply any given army on any given day His advice is profound. beware the preachers beware the knowers beware those who are always reading books beware those who either detest poverty or are proud of it On women, he said in "Back luck with the girls". good weather is like good women- it doesn...
»