tree lawns; was Re: Off and on

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Thu Sep 22 14:01:31 UTC 2011


On Sep 22, 2011, at 9:54 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 9/22/2011 01:33 AM, Paul Johnston wrote:
>> ... As I say, in New Jersey, there was no term, though my
>> neighborhood had sidewalks, and so, there was a tree lawn/parkway/berm.
>
> Nor do I, grown in NYC and living in New England, have a term.

Right; I have a similar background and was disconcerted to see that Bert Vaux's otherwise very useful survey page doesn't have an entry for *my* favored term, i.e. "the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the curb".  I will concede that "tree lawn", "berm", et al. are a bit more concise.

LH, recalling an abortive attempt to popularize the label "dog-turd strip" in the old pre-pooper-scooper era

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