understatement

It's unusual to think of such a wonderfully decorative watershape in this way, but the one featured in this edition of "Details" was the result of a client's desire for a measure of safety for the front of his home. The house is located on an intersection in a hilly part of Manhattan Beach, Calif., where the steep, downhill orientation of the streets occasionally lead cars to make turns at unwisely high speeds.  Given the orientation of his front door, my client was concerned that, with a bit of very bad luck, he might someday find an out-of-control-driver's car in his foyer. As is the case with many