Digging in the Dirt II

Immediately after seeing this I felt the need to mock it.
Sure, plants growing out of egg shells are cute, but the text touts this as a way to recycle your cracked egg shells. Of all the things we need to worry about finding a way to recycle - egg shells aren't one of them.
They recycle themselves, pretty easily in your compost, have been for years.
If you'd rather plant seeds in them by all means go ahead, but don't pat yourself on the back over all the egg shells you're keeping out of the landfill.
Then I thought - "you're such a curmudgeon Joanne, just let them have their cute seedings in egg shells - what's the harm?"
I suppose the harm is when we think that we can rest on our green laurels after recycling egg shells and therefore don't address any real issues.

song: Digging in the Dirt • artist: Peter Gabriel

Sixteen Tons

Ken is the kind of consumer that companies hate.
He buys what's on sale - without any brand loyalty.
The last several boxes of diapers he's brought home have featured characters from Sesame Street.
I believe I have complained in the past about how it's practically impossible to find a diaper that doesn't feature some licensed character on it. I also believe I have suggested my excellent idea for no-name diapers which, instead of Dora the Explorer, have the words FRONT and BACK emblazoned on them.
This would be very helpful. Especially when you have to change the baby in the middle of the night. Or in a drunken stupor.
But back to Sesame Street.
Although at our house they do not watch television except for movies, anything goes at Nana and Papa's so S & N are able to recognize the Sesame Street characters.
And what is the next step after recognition? Stating a personal preference naturally.
Both the boys prefer diapers with Ernie on them.
It's not surprising that they both like the same character - they are twins after all.
What happens is that stacks of diapers are disheveled and strewn about the bedroom in the search for  the coveted Ernie diapers. And there are never enough Ernie diapers to go around. Grover is the runner up choice but it's a distant second. N & S will make several passes through the stack in hopes of an Ernie before settling on a Grover.
Then there's the problem of the other characters: Elmo, Big Bird, and Cookie Monster. They are on the rejected diapers that no one wants.
Oddly, Elmo appears two times more often than the other characters. In one version Elmo is waving; the other is a static head-on illustration.
Why, I ask out loud, are there two versions of Elmo? Were there so few other suitable characters that they had to repeat one? What about Oscar? Kermit? Snuffaluffa-whatever his name was? What about them?
Ken does not understand what the big deal is about this. So I explain.
It's like this honey. The box of diapers is like your can of mixed nuts. First you eat all the cashews, and then the almonds. You keep going until you get to the Brazil nuts. The nuts you leave in the can when you open a new can because you don't like Brazil nuts. No one likes Brazil nuts.
Now imagine there are twice as many Brazil nuts as there are cashews.
Elmo is a Brazil nut.
What's even more of a travesty is that there's no Bert diaper. How can there even be an Ernie diaper without a corresponding Bert diaper? What's wrong with Bert?
It's nuts if you ask me.

song: Sixteen Tons • artist: Tennessee Ernie Ford

Sail On

Don't miss the 24-hour reading of Moby Dick, going on now, at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
Four and a half hours in and the Pequod hasn't left the dock yet.
http://www.whalingmuseum.org/programs/moby-dick-marathon-2012


song: Sail On • The Commodores

This is why we Fight

A disturbing statistic I read recently stated that siblings argue on average, eight times an hour.
I mentioned this to C who dwelt on it for a few seconds and then said, "that seems about right."
Today the elementary school students voted on the feature film for Jan. 20's movie night. The choice was between Smurfs and Despicable Me.
Please let Despicable Me win.

song: This is why we Fight • artist: Decemberists

Throwing it All Away

For the record I'd like to say that I, for one, cannot wait until Falmouth adopts a pay as you go trash disposal system. I think we should all sit on the floor and spill out the refuse in our trash cans aka Colin Beavan (Mr. No Impact Man himself) and really look at it.
Way back when - towns didn't collect garbage - and really why should they? Why is the town responsible for hauling away the styrofoam packaging from last night's take out? Way back when farmers had their own personal garbage piles on some remote corner of their property (Peter Rabbit's relations are always rooting around in it in the Beatrice Potter books remember?) There wasn't much in it, some composting newspapers, rotten rutabagas, shoe leather, and glass bottles.
Of course most of us don't live on farms anymore or have large enough tracts of land to accommodate our own personal Fresh Kills; and towns got in on the garbage collection action (wisely) in order to prevent diseases from spreading through cities and large towns when waste was left lying waist high in the streets.
I've heard the argument that pay as you go will create rampant littering but have you looked around lately? Look up in the trees and count the plastic bags, drive down Thomas Landers Road or Route 28 where the double lane highway ends as you approach town - litter is already rampant. People who don't recycle are just lazy - pay as you go isn't going to make them into illegal dumping criminals. If they haven't the energy to sort through their trash and separate, it what makes people think they'll have the energy to load it into their cars at night and drive around looking for a place to dispose of it? It's like the reusable bags. We aren't motivated to remember them because it's not costing us anything to forget them. Not yet at least.
In Sandwich this summer, where they already have adopted pay as you go, I saw more instances of people putting items in their front yards with sings on them reading "free." How great is that? Instead of throwing away something that could be useful to someone else - items are being offered up for free. Did everyone in Sandwich suddenly become altruistic, or by making it harder to throw stuff out (or more expensive) has the town given people incentive to consider (and take responsibility for) what happens to the stuff they throw out.
If it's easy. It's easy not to think about it.
Taking it a step further, why should our trash cans be laden with plastic twists ties, cellophane windows to cardboard boxes, the plastic clam shells that the batteries came in, the hard-to-remove plastic that tiny computer camera flash card come in - that you need the kitchen scissors to extract, not to mention what happens to larger items at the end of their life cycle, like TVs . The companies that make these products should be the ones to deal with all the trash that's created just by buying something and opening it up.
Maybe, when we're all left holding the bag (literally) we'll start holding corporations accountable. If corporations are recognized by law as having certain rights and responsibilities should they have to clean up the messes that they create?
After all, my kids have to clean up theirs.

song: Throwing it All Away • artist: Genesis

Far Away

And here's another thing about plastic bags. At the Windfall Market (our town's independently owned grocery store) they deduct a nickel off your total for every reusable bag you bring in. Let's just say up front that a nickel is not much of an incentive to begin with but - I would argue that when I do remember to bring in my canvas bags I can fit four times as many groceries into them as I would be able to get in one plastic bag. So shouldn't I get 20¢ per bag instead of just 5¢? Shouldn't the policy be a nickel for every plastic bag I am saving the store by not using?
I do not know the answer to this but last time I was in Windfall with my bags I had three bags but only enough items to warrant the use of two. The bagger argued to the cashier that I should get 15¢ off my order, a nickel for every bag brought, not a mere 10¢ for actual bags used.
If that's the policy I could start bringing my entire reusable bag collection into the store, which is upwards of 10 bags, plus the half dozen my husband keeps in his car.

song: Far Away • artist: Nickelback