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In this example collected via e-mail in March 2008: While it's impossible to date the first appearance of this story of a jilted woman's retaliation via making a lawn of her former lover's home,we note that it's been kicking around since at least the 1980s when the spreading of health-food seeds throughout the intended victim's apartment, then watering the whole place down before forever closing the door behind the now re-empowered gal was worked into a telling of the Telephone left connected to an international call for three weeks revenge tale. This is a typical woman strikes back tale, with the act of getting even taking place not in a direct, face-to-face manner, but when the party being punished is not present. He himself is not subjected to the woman's wrath, but rather his things are, as she chooses to wreak financial havoc upon his possessions rather than physical havoc upon his person. Legends such as these (see The $50 Porsche for another example) feature a clever method of causing financial loss without having to do so in front of the one being harmed. Sometimes the tale is rendered absent of the male/female dynamic and presented as an avenging roommate story: It's possible the legend grew out of a practical joke suggestion published in a compendium of such in 1985: The desire for revenge runs deep in all of us. Everyone who has ever been wronged has at one time or another felt the urge to strike a counterblow. Most of us don't indulge in this pursuit because we've deemed the cost of getting even too high to justify the benefits gained, yet we revel in thoughts of comeuppances doled out by others. Such imaginings give us the chance to vicariously experience the joys of retribution, joys we're not likely to sample in real life.
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