- Playing
- Why Lawns?
- From
- Ed Herrmann
Maintaining a lawn takes a lot of time and money, and makes a lot of noise in the process. Why do we do it? Where does the image of what a lawn should look like come from? What are the environmental consequences?
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Piece Description
Maintaining a lawn takes a lot of time and money, and makes a lot of noise in the process. Why do we do it? Where does the image of what a lawn should look like come from? What are the environmental consequences?
Broadcast History
Originally distributed by the GLRC in 2004.
Includes the outcue, "For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I'm Ed Herrmann." Please contact me if you want this changed or deleted.
Transcript
(sound of evening insects)
EH: It's a late summer evening and at last I can go outside and enjoy the sounds of the neighborhood. There's a little breeze, the air is cooler. The chorus of insects is soothing, gentle but insistent, an ancient throbbing resonance. Much better than during the day...
(roar of lawn machines)
Summer days in the suburbs are the time of assault, when people attack their lawns with powerful weapons from the chemical and manufacturing industries. Anyone who uses the words "quiet" and "suburbs" in the same sentence has never been to a suburb, at least not in summer. It takes a lot of noise to maintain a lawn. Besides the mower, you've got edgers, trimmers, leaf blowers, weed whackers, core aerators, little tractors, big tractors, slitting machines. I don't know whatever happened to rakes and hand clippers. One thing's for sure. This quest for lawn perfecti...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
SUGGESTED LEAD: One of the great rituals in suburban America is mowing the lawn. A manicured lawn seems to say that the house is well cared for, that it belongs to the neighborhood. Ed Herrmann wonders whether this obsession for the perfect lawn is worth the effort:
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Marjorie Van Halteren
Posted on August 14, 2006 at 02:45 AM | Permalink
Review of Why Lawns?
Down with lawns! Ok, not to be too radicial, but before I listened to this guy (who describes his lawn as "multicultural"), I didn't realize that this grass everywhere isn't even native. No wonder it takes so much useless care! I am personally replacing mine with other stuff, step by step.
I liked this piece for the lively use of sound, the subject matter for end of summer, and the producer's nice reading personality, from which he could lose even more of the "page" in his friendly voice.