• Troy@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    I always go introduce myself after I move in, but only if they have property abutting mine. It helps to avoid conflict if you have a phone number or something. “Hey, my moving truck is arriving this Thursday with my stuff and will block access to your driveway in the afternoon. With apologies. If this will cause you problems, please let me know and we can work something out.” Or whatever.

    There’s a phrase that goes “good fences make good neighbours” and I hate the phrase.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      When I was younger I went and told all my neighbors that I was throwing a party. My thought was that if we got too loud they could call me to quiet down instead of the cops. This was a poorly thought out idea, since they all thought I was inviting them to the party, and were disappointed when they realized I was just warning them. I probably should have started with something like “I want to warn you that I might be loud tonight”, not with “I’m having a party tonight”.

    • kersploosh@sh.itjust.worksM
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      10 months ago

      There’s a phrase that goes “good fences make good neighbours” and I hate the phrase.

      I agree. Also, it’s trivia time! That phrase came into common usage from Mending Wall by Robert Frost. A character in the poem keeps repeating it while repairing his stone fence. The narrator clearly disagrees, and wonders why people are driven to create fences that are unnecessary or counterproductive. People who use “good fences make good neighbors” as a truism need to read the poem.

      • Troy@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        Nice poem! Do you think Robert Frost coined the phrase in the poem, or was it something he heard somewhere that he figured he’d skewer with the poem?

        • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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          10 months ago

          Frost had a history of subverting the literal lines in his poems. For example, there are several lines in The Road Not Taken that directly contradict the conclusion of “And that has made all the difference”, yet no one really reads the entire poem these days.

        • kersploosh@sh.itjust.worksM
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          10 months ago

          I don’t know. I assume he heard it among the farmers in New Hampshire where he lived, but that’s a total guess on my part.

      • Paraponera_clavata@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It sounds like frost didn’t come up with the phrase - that It already existed at the time of the poem. I wonder how long it was in use for.

    • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      I’d be pissed regardless. Why is your truck blocking my property? Must be some really weird entrances to the property if that’s the case but using my own area as my mental example, I’d have tow trucks on standby. Nice tow trucks though.