[GtrsRGr8]

Thanks for the info on Bombeck's article/chapter. I think that she was a newspaper columnist. If so, that piece may never have appeared in any of her books (which seems to contain material written specifically for the book, or a book at any rate), but only in an inspired newspaper column one time. I'm sure that Googling would reveal the facts about that, too. In fact, back in my buying-used-books-in-thrift-stores days, when I came across a Bombeck book, I would flip through it looking for a chapter that could possibly contain the "and they will" piece, and never did.

I don't remember seeing greener grass over field lines much, either. Nowadays, local building codes probably are more conservative about that than they used to be. Years ago, someone could probably get by by just burying them a few inches below the top of the ground--it seems that that would make the grass above them greener! Of course, you can't do that anymore in a developed country like the U.S. There's probably a minimum of 3 feet or more that you've got to sink them, because of health concerns. I'd be surprised if the grass above field lines set 3 feet below the surface would look any different than the grass anywhere else in the yard.