Hello Ardith,   
      
   Tuesday October 16 2018, Ardith Hinton wrote to Alexander Koryagin:   
      
    AK>>  -----Beginning of the citation-----   
    AK>>  The bus chugged westward. On both sides of the streets   
    AK>>  were interesting buildings. The Cowboy's Retreat was a   
    AK>>  log cabin fronted with flashing neon lights. The Emerald   
    AK>>  Crown was a hotel shaped like a wedding cake with a carpet   
    AK>>  that rolled down to the road like a green beach meeting   
    AK>>  a tarmac sea.   
    AK>>  ----- The end of the citation -----   
      
    AK>>  What is a green beach, what is a tarmac sea, and how   
    AK>>  can they meet?   
      
    AH>           The word "like" tells me the author is making a comparison   
    AH> here... technically a simile.  I imagine the carpet as a lawn,   
    AH> possibly made of fake grass, and the tarmac sea as a paved road.   
    AH> Apparently one part of this lawn ends at the side of the road, i.e.   
    AH> the lawn & the road come into contact.   
      
   This is what I meant except I thought of not fake but real grass.   
      
    AH> In any case, the narrator is thinking of it as a beach adjacent to the   
    AH> sea....  :-)   
      
   Exactly.   
      
   BTW I was named a bad boy here but I consider it a compliment, since I was a   
   boy very long ago. :)   
      
   Michael   
      
   ... node (at) f1042 (dot) ru   
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    * Origin: Moscow, Russia (2:5020/1042)