vanishing "deep end"

[degustibus]

from SFgate.com, JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press
Writer ::

quote
The diving boards were pulled up in the 1980s, and now
deep ends are being deep-sixed.

For reasons of safety and family appeal, the standard
public swimming pool that many Americans grew up
splashing around in -- a rectangle with a bottom that
drops off to a diving area maybe 12 feet deep -- is
fast being replaced by shallow pools of the sort seen
in water parks.

Some cities and states have been filling in the deep
ends of their pools, and new pools are less likely to
have deep water.

The old-style "drowning pools" won't be missed, said
aquatics expert Tom Griffiths.
end q
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2003/07/01/national1354EDT0617.DTL
===============

End of deep end also lamented by columnist Mark
Morford,
q
Cities are filling them in, hotels are redesigning
their outdoor amenities, backyard-pool manufacturers
are no longer building pools with areas deeper than
five feet.

Too much danger, they say. Too many broken necks and
screaming kids and drowned people and lawsuits, they
say. Aquatics tastes have changed, they say.

Bah, we say. This is a significant tragedy. This is
yet another shift in our increasingly panicky and
trepidatious culture toward further sanitizing the
world, stripping it of all edge and menace and wonder
and vital rites of passage and what's next, the end of
lawn darts? The demise of the wicked-cool playground,
full of looming monkey bars and dramatic swing sets
and huge metal slides? The end of the manual-clutch
transmission, fer chrissakes? Whoops, too late.
q

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2003/07/09/notes070903.DTL&nl=fix

=================================

OED has 1921 deep end, "slang of the moment."  Must be
earlier, since Britannica notes that by 1837 England
had 6 swimming pools with diving boards.  Olympic
diving competition dates from 1904-- was rooted in
gymnastics and acrobatics.

The deep end may vanish, but as long as deep water
persists -- I'm getting in over my head ....



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