OUCH! Unpleasant Thoughts

by Reg Green

The very first house I looked at to rent when we came to this country was on Pleasant Avenue. In fact, it was on Pleasant Avenue, Pleasantville.

I imagined the ribaldry this would cause in the pub I had just left behind in London, as they vied with each other to choose a more appropriate address for me: Argumentative Avenue, Disputatious Drive, Sourpuss Street.

The house was fine and so was the neighborhood — very pleasant, in fact — but not what we wanted, and we went elsewhere.

A sign I saw last weekend on a trip from Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe, however, has me wondering if we made the right choice.