🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <7p8rme$t05$1@nnrp1.deja.com>, Michael Malak
<malak@claygency.com> wrote:

> Did you notice John Weeks' current area code?  612 -- Minnesota.
> This isn't the first time I've heard the same comment from someone
> out West. [The broad vistas you find along the highways of the Midwest
and West induce claustrophobia in motorists from those regions who drive on
East Coast highways.]
> 
> It's still difficult for me to comprehend, but they feel like the
> trees are in the way of their view, even if that view is the back
> of an Exxon.

ISTR that the stretch of I-55 in Mississippi that was completed ~1973 was
lined with evergreens mainly to block the view of the (fairly
poverty-stricken) farmland of the Delta.

And after experiencing a spasm of nostalgia while driving along PA 283 from
Harrisburg to Lancaster, which passes through farmland closely resembling
what you find in western Missouri or eastern Kansas, I can understand your
point.

However, I must also agree that the trees you find along East Coast
expressways are usually preferable to what you'd see otherwise.  Consider
the Connecticut Turnpike^W^WI-95 from New Haven west as a counterexample.

Unfortunately, in some states -- Pennsylvania (surprise!) is particularly
bad in this regard -- an endless parade of billboards over some of the
highways spoils the effect of the trees.  NJ isn't as bad in this regard.

-- 
Sandy Smith, University Relations / 215.898.1423 / smiths@pobox.upenn.edu
Associate Editor, _Pennsylvania Current_          current@pobox.upenn.edu
Penn Web Team -- Web Editor                       webmaster@isc.upenn.edu
I speak for myself here, not Penn         http://pobox.upenn.edu/~smiths/

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