Wasn't the Grass Greener?: A Curmudgeon's Fond Memories

""Every silver lining has its cloud... Does running five miles a day prevent or cause heart attacks, and what are the odds of getting hit by a car, and will its driver be saved or killed by the air bag?"" In this pointed but lighthearted series of ruminations on the downside of progress, Holland elaborates on the theme she explored in her previous collection, Endangered Pleasures. In 33 brief essays, she nostalgically ponders such extinct pleasures as sitting on the front porch--a practice that has gradually disappered because of indoor air-conditioning--which served not only as a way to cool off, but also as a way for lovers to meet or for neighbors to enjoy communal gossip. Holland has fond memories of New York City as a mecca for sin and sophistication and laments the efforts by the current mayor to launder the city into a theme park that's almost as boring as the suburbs. A major culprit in these modern changes are new worries: Holland points out that dire fears of hunger or dying in wartime have given way, in today's relatively secure United States, to an obsessive concern with personal health and safety. Her ruminations on such topics as the loss of leisure time in today's overscheduled childhoods or the decline of the neighborhood tavern as a congenial gathering place will delight fans, as well as those who share the author's reminiscences. (June)