XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm   
      
   On Thu, 4 Jun 2020 16:03:49 -0400, Bill O'Meally wrote:   
   >   
   > On 2020-06-04 00:30:22 +0000, Glenn Holliday said:   
   >   
   > > On 5/31/2020 4:45 PM, Bill O'Meally wrote:   
   > >> of garden'.  But what's with the *four* lawns?  Was this one of his many   
   > >   
   > > My first guess is front, side, rear, side.   
   >   
   > Hmm. That make a lot of sense, and you are probably correct. But it   
   > seems odd to describe his own patches of grass as simply numerical   
   > 'lawns' rather than 'the front lawn', 'the back lawn', 'the Lawn of   
   > Parth Galen', etc. ;-)   
   >   
   > Wouldn't he have been more likely to say something like, "I mowed the   
   > front and both sides. Grr! the back will have to wait"?   
      
   That wouldn't have been nearly as dramatic! JRRT did like to play the   
   martyr on occasion, or maybe it's nearer the truth to say that he   
   sometimes exaggerated real misfortunes so that they seemed worse than   
   they were. IDHTBIFOM, but for example I think he talked about his   
   mother having been "persecuted" by the rest of the family, after his   
   father's death, because she stayed Roman Catholic.   
      
   This is not of the same order, of course, but I could see him   
   claiming four lawns for "poetical exaggeration".   
      
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   Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA   
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