And your "veranda" (verandah?...alt.sp.?) post coupled with literature, Dr. Bill, brings to mind Tennessee Williams (steady, Dub-Dub ). Summer and Smoke, The Night of the Iguana, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof all bear images of wide shaded porches...Southern style.

from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof:

Mendacity! It is all mendacity! Mendacity is the system we live in! --Brick

I picked up the word mendacity and mendacious from that play when I was about 12 years old.