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Poplorica: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions, and Lore That Shaped Modern America

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Overview

Pop culture meets pop reference in this irreverent tour of twenty unlikely events, innovations, and individuals that forever changed the way we live. Veteran journalists Smith and Kiger make the offbeat their beat, offering fascinating explanations for the perplexing mysteries of modern life: Lawns: If most homeowners hate yard work, why does every home have a lawn The Sexual Revolution: Was it really sparked by the disastrous honeymoon of a science geek Convenience Food: When did convenience become more important than the food Diets: In the best-fed country on earth, how did thin become "in" Entertaining and always enlightening, Poplorica ensures you'll never look at a disposable diaper or a black-velvet painting the same way again.

Editorial Reviews

Who'd have thought that Willis Carrier's "Apparatus for Treating Air," an early air conditioner patented in 1906, would set the stage for the Republican domination of Washington that started with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 (by allowing for a population shift to the hotter Southern states) Or that 260 tons of leftover turkey would help usher in a profound change in the way Americans eat and socialize with their families (by stuffing the first TV dinners) Smith (a Los Angeles Times Magazine editor) and Kiger (a freelancer and regular contributor to Discovery.com) share 20 similarly significant milestones in this "Cliff Notes of contemporary culture" chronicling some overlooked but strangely influential moments in American history. A melange of strange occurrences, the book is brisk and frisky, addressing everything from the extracurricular exploits of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey to the way in which former first lady Betty Ford's public struggle with addiction presaged an era that would finally accept drug and alcohol abuse as a disease and not a moral failing. Though its yuckity-yuck style approaches the cornball at times, the book succeeds in placing into context the chosen developments in a breezy, compulsively readable fashion. Thanks to these two research-happy authors, readers may decide it's okay to restore that velvet Elvis to its honored place above the mantle, where it can enjoy a second life as a treasured piece of ironic Americana. All history should be this much fun. (On sale Mar. 31) Forecast: With ads in American Quarterly and Popular Culture and a 50-city national radio campaign, Poplorica could reach fans of quirky trivia, especially after the success of Schott's Original Miscellany. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Patrick J. Kiger

Patrick J. Kiger's articles have appeared in GQ, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Philadelphia, and elsewhere. He lives near Washington, D.C.

Bio of Martin J. Smith

Martin J. Smith is a journalist and magazine editor and winner of more than forty newspaper and magazine writing awards. He is a senior editor at the Los Angeles Times Magazine and is the author of three critically acclaimed suspense thrillers, including Straw Men, a 2002 Edgar Award nominee. He lives with his family in southern California.

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Additional Info

Imprint

HarperCollins

Filesize

905.99 KB

Number of Pages

284

eBook ISBN

9780061179617

Excerpt from: Poplorica by Patrick J. Kiger

1
Frank J. Scott's Great Green Manifesto
In 1870, a little-known landscape architect published a book that changed the face of America ' and continues to ruin weekends.

NOTHING SO VIVIDLY UNDERSCORES the peculiar American fascination with the lawn than the Dixie Chopper Jet. At its debut, that custom mower was equipped with a 150-horsepower jet engine designed to help power a Chinook helicopter. It could reach speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. With its fat rear tires and massive power plant, which juts off the back like the business end of an overweight bumblebee, the Dixie Chopper Jet could mow an entire football field in fourteen minutes. It remains the envy of every member of the seven-hundred-member Illinois-based United States Lawn Mower Racing Association.

In any other culture, the mere existence of such a machine would seem like a demented fever dream. In the United States, though, where 46.5 million acres of grass are under cultivation, the Dixie Chopper Jet achieved a hallowed place among those dedicated souls to whom lawn care is less a duty than a lifestyle choice. Word of it spread not only through news media reports, but the jet-powered mower became somewhat of a celebrity because of its appearances on television shows such as Good Morning America and a memorable season finale of Home Improvement.

One can't help but wonder what impression the Dixie Chopper Jet would have made on Frank Jesup Scott, the obscure nineteenth-century landscape architect at whose feet we must lay much of the credit, or blame, for the American lawn obsession. How would Scott react to this mower on steroids, or to the stunning reality that, according to the Lawn Institute, a Georgia-based nonprofit organization dedicated to the promulgation of turf, more grass is under cultivation in the United States than any single crop, including wheat, corn, or tobacco What would he make of Americans' willingness to spend between $25 billion and $30 billion a year on do-it-yourself lawn and garden care, or of the estimated $750 million a year they shell out for grass seed to perpetuate the Sisyphian cycle of mowable new growth Could the author of a landmark Victorian gardening guidebook ever have imagined that American communities would someday fine or prosecute homeowners whose lawn care was considered inadequate, or that in 1998 the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal would mount a massive exhibition about the American lawn that would open with Scott's galvanizing call to arms in the battle to civilize the landscape: "A smooth, closely shaven surface of green is by far the most essential element of beauty on the grounds of a suburban house."