A plant with blade-like leaves that has taken on a larger-than-life significance in of the cultures on our wondrous
planet.

Grass has a habit of sprouting on any untended land in any area that receives enough rainfall to support it, and,
indeed, in the less populated areas of the Earth's surface this is the end of the story. It is the tendency of grass within
highly populated areas to congregate into lawns that has had such a large impact on the lives of many.

The first way in which grass has affected us is by giving name to the "grass is greener" effect. We can be an insecure
bunch and are often easily convinced that everyone else has a much better life than ourselves. Hence the saying "the
other man's grass is always greener". This is not a statement to be taken literally, except when made by the neighbours
of one Reginald Flossweaver in Sydney, Australia, whom botanists of the world recently recognised as having the greenest
grass on the planet.

The second and possibly more important effect grass has on people, relates more directly to the formation of lawns
in heavily populated areas. Most home gardens will have a lawn of some size or other, lawns are also used for holding
sporting events on (eg, Football, Cricket, Tennis), and also are a common site for wedding receptions in Hollywood movies.
The problem lies in that grass tends to grow very quickly, whereas the usual required length for grass to be when part of
a lawn is usually around one inch, and can be even shorter. This has lead to an important ritual in many peoples lives,
known as 'lawn mowing'. This involves using a rather funky piece of apparatus called a lawn mower to cut grass down
to a more satisfactory size. For best results this ritual should be repeated once a week, in which case the grass will not have
had time to grow too much and the mowing process will be simple. Most people, however, choose to mow the lawn only
when it starts to look too long, by which time any hope of being able to give the mower an easy time cutting the grass
has long since past.

Contrary to what many would have you believe, it makes little difference what kind of mower is used for performing
this ritual, a point missed by all those who fought in the Great Qualcast-Flymo War of 1986. This pointless conflict began
when arguments over which was superior out of the new-fangled hover mowers, and the more traditional wheel-along
mowers. However, the hostilities ended by tea-time, and no-one involved sustained any injuries, apart from the odd bruise,
so I wouldn't get too worried about it.