I'm not sure why it didn't first occur to me while reading the article, but reading everyone else's comments triggered my memory of the M. Night Shymalan movie (sp?) The Village. Has anyone else seen that? That's, in some ways, a great example of people who didn't like the conditions they were faced with -- so they essentially "moved out" (segregated) themselves, put up a fence, in a manner of speaking, and started over with their own rules. I won't give away too much more, in case no one has seen it, but it's worth watching if you haven't, and I think it strikes an interesting chord in light of our discussions about fences, gates and people's choices about how they want to live, and where.

Completely unrelated to the above...this is kind of on-topic, but kind of different. I found a link to a blog that has photos of the most unbelievable Christmas-time yard decoration extravaganzas. Here's the link if you're interested http://tackychristmasyards.com/. Despite what Bickford would say, I think some of these people need a gate and a fence that is not see-thru.