McMansions (was: Boughten bread)

[Peter A. McGraw]

I don't know what "McMansions" are in other parts of the country, but the
term has been around in Oregon for quite awhile to designate the kind of
oversized, pretentious house that has sprung up in upscale subdivisions and
in rural areas.  Typical features are a 3- or 4-stall garage and a
pretentious-looking front door with cut glass windows and some kind of
grand portico.  In subdivisions they mimic California suburbs by taking up
nearly all their property and thus crowding together cheek-by-jowl; in
rural areas they tend to occupy developments of mini-estates that have
taken former farmland out of production or replaced large stands of stately
fir trees.  For all their pretentious grandiosity, they still manage to
look cheap.  A great word for a miserable phenomenon.

Not that I'm biased or anything.

Peter Mc.

--On Wednesday, December 10, 2003 10:45 AM -0500 "James A. Landau"
<JJJRLandau at AOL.COM> wrote:

> 2) in an article about developers taking over old airfields, someone was
> quoted as complaining about the developers building "McMansions".  Now
> "mcjobs" is plausible and reasonably obvious in meaning, but what the Mac
> is a "McMansion"?



*****************************************************************
Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************