Word: lawns
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...Billy, her eight-year-old who sometimes wore a look so awful "complete strangers had to fight off the urge to smack him," and a baby "who hadn't the slightest notion of what a father was," she arrives exhausted at her Hemlock Street dream house. Confronted by a lawn grown weedy, a kitchen reeking of rotten garbage, and a stopped-up toilet, she ignores all the signs of suburban hell and calls to Billy, "Never mind the way it is now. Think about the way it's going to look...
...bake the same coconut cake, hang out laundry on the same day of the week and order dinette sets with laminated tops that look like wood but sponge off easily. Loving her children is not enough. To fit in, Nora would have to keep them up, along with the lawn, live a life as ordered as the ones around her and, most important, get a husband...
...split shot) and others, like the bisque, the take-off, pass roll, cut rush and cannon, that are too intricate to describe -- must be calculated a dozen moves in advance if a player is to peg out for a finish against a single stake in the center of the lawn. It helps to have a sadistic streak since it is as important to hamper an opponent with a difficult "leave" as it is to advance one's own game...
Croquet makes golf, a game to which it is often compared, seem like a no- brain activity pursued on AstroTurf. It is hard to see how the game could miss. In what other sport can you sip champagne and nibble strawberries on a velvety green lawn in pristine outfits that will never suffer from sweat stains? Since mental acuity rather than muscles, speed or stamina is what matters, it is a truly coed sport where women can play men without a handicap. It is also perfect for those who are no longer thirtysomething or in perfect shape. American Croquet Association...
Still, with upkeep of a 105-ft. by 84-ft. lawn running about $4,000 a year and a set of croquet equipment costing as much as $3,500, the sport's appeal to the masses is limited. The court at Sonoma-Cutrer, built on 16 in. of sand from Bodega Bay, is mowed three times a day during the tournament to exactly three-sixteenths of an inch by lawn-mower blades with the precision of Ginsu knives and then groomed with a metal comb by a greenkeeper. The dependable sogginess that keeps British courts so lush is helped along...