The Storm of the Century

I'm sure Ms. Crow isn't thinking about the private jets she uses, the 6 touring buses that she requires, etc. when she talks about saving toilet paper. Her ideas about eliminating paper napkins and using her design for wiping your mouth on a sleeve is another scatter-brained idea.

I've been thinking. Does anyone know if was it a print interview? I wonder if this is another wonderful example of how the actual word was 'distorted'?

Two different shows repeated it word for word. Somehow I doubt it was distorted. Since she hasn't made any announcement that she's been misquoted I tend to believe it was her message.

I think the interview took place in a ladies room. Witnesses claim she walked in with one square.

.........and then, much to her great surprise, she found she needed and additonal two sheets..................

(next person can continue the story)

So two more of her 'people' arrived just in time.

I was hoping everyone would chime in to continue the saga of the one sheet gal. No sheet!

Holy Sheet!

..........and we're back to potty talk - again!

Whatcha all talkin' bout? huh!! (I'm out in left field, further out than usual cause I was away over the weekend and haven't had time to read the story. Or maybe I'm in right field depending which way you're facing. I'm not even sure I'm on the field - I've been chasing my grandson (while his parents are on a cruise) and he can't even WALK!! Help Me. Enough rambling :-))))


OK, reading the last couple of entries your story is about sheets, right?

Colin drools all over his crib sheets because he is teething so I have no clean sheets to offer the guests!!!

Grammy - are you saying your guests sleep in cribs, too?

Actually, we've been talking about Sheryl Crow and how she thinks we should all do our part to save the world and start by using one sheet of toilet paper per visit to the potty. Two or three are allowed for emergency situations.

See what happens when you don't read the whole story! Maybe that's how rumors start or the story gets twisted!! Actually the only guest I've had lately does sleep in a crib - he's wearing out his welcome!! (Just Kidding) I'm ready for some older and more mature company though - is that why I'm on this thread? LOL
OK, now I've really messed up the story - next person just ignore this entry and continue as if I'm not here.

Wow, do you know how many paper towels it took to clean up that mess? I don't either cause my daughter cleaned him up - I wouldn't touch him. But it took a lot! Sheryl would throw a tantrum if she knew they used paper towels instead of a wash cloth.

What I saw of Sheryl Crow, it appeared to be said with humor. She is also touring the country on a biodiesel (?, runs off waste) bus, not on a private jet as she continues her Global Warming Tour.

Was the bus on a 'winding road' and if she 'soaks up a lot of sun' that will take care of global warming for a few years won't it? Sorry, I'm still suffering from an overdose of grandson - hopefully when his parents get back on Sunday and I get some free time to myself I will recover. I feel like I'm 85 instead of 58!!

Well, it's great people are finally waking up to global climate change - but it is sort of sad that we actually have known this stuff since 1992 (15 years ago) and the climate conference Brazil. The book that was published for that conference was called "Our Common Future."

Unfortunately, the ones that cause the greatest amount damage are the large companies that don't want to spend the money to change it. Whether it's the product that they make or the byproduct from making the product.

It does seem that most sceptics have changed their tune. Maybe something will happen. CT now has a slightly more expensive elecricity ($8/month for avg. home)we can buy through our regulat electric co. that is 100% renewable energy. I'm going to switch. Do your states have this?

I think that the biggest source of the problem is cars. We can do better.

We've done a lot of damage to our earth with trash (diapers in the landfill ??), chemicals, automobiles, etc. Is this what our earth was intended for? I can't even imagine what it will be like for my one year old grandson's grandchildren. What will global warming do to level of the oceans by then?

Well, here is my chance to add oil to the fire. I tell my students that I can't understand why they are not upset with our generation. We keep insisting on voting for tax roll-backs. We resist increasing our tax "burden" while basic services (such as regulating agriculture, labour codes, and the environment) and infrastructure are neglected. Hundred-year old water mains, sewage systems, and roads either require serious maintenance or replacement. Modern cities should have underground electrical wiring, etc. Schools should be maintained, not falling apart.

All of this will have to take place . . . but, if not under our watch, then under the watch of our children. Meanwhile, parents defer their responsibilities (IMHO) to their children.

I used cloth diapers - but the structure of modern society makes disposable preferable. In many young families, both parents work to acquire the (now) necessary income required to maintain middle-class status (because the standards have increased so dramatically in the last 50 years - think of what a middle class family owned in 1957). Most daycare providers insist on disposables. There are few if any diaper services. Only those with the luxury of (1) owning their own washer and dryer and (2) a lifestyle that allows one parent to remain at home have a real chance of keeping diapers out of the landfills.

Meanwhile, the greater part of the population is convinced we need a continuously growing economy - which primarily grows because we convince people to buy more and more and more and more and more!

With each commodity purchased, the environment is compromised that little bit more, since there a few things we buy that somehow have not required the burning of fossil fuel at some stage.

Gee . . . I better stop now, or no one will ever talk to me again!

Dave, I have been looking into renewable energy... my house is ALL electric.. we spent around 5K in one year!!! this year we are doing better... but if I go electric renewable is even more expensive... the solar I wanted to install is just the heat the water to certain temp and I would still need to use electricity to heat up but it's less... so I am really looking into that!

Seandor, I am glad you tell your students that! someone has to do it...

It took me a long time to really realize that I should recycle... I should do my part even if I am the only one on my street... so we fixed our way of living!!!! we are the only family that has 2 recycle bins and 1 trash can... and my sister thinks she can recycle even the pizza box!!!!

I think one of the best things that happened to me was gardening... it's making me a responsable person... I am going to get an old fashion lawn mower... not electric... well, this way I get the exercise I need plus I don't add to the polution!!!!

Our landfill has provisions (and has for the 16 years we've lived here) for recycling many items, from packing peanuts to all colors of glass, all kinds of plastic, newspapers, cardboard as well as batteries, paints, poisons, clothing donation bin and much more. Having compost bins eliminates so much from typical garbage.

I will help fuel the fire on this one. What a lot of this comes down to is people are getting lazy. The older generation knew the word - WORK. Example washing diapers rather then the disposables. Having a garden and doing the work instead of buying the goods.

In the state of NH - kids can't work like they used to. The Dept. of Labor says that kids can only work for their mother, father, or grandmother or grandfather. Then from 12 -15 they can only work 2 hours a day and only at a certian time. 16 and older in school can work more hours "I THINK" 4 hours and not past 10 PM. Of course that is with a school work permit so they have to make their grades. OK - I see that.

Then the Federal Labor Laws are different from the NH Labor Laws. I know this as I got poinked for 90 violations from the State at 100 bucks a pop in 3 years. (the state will go back 3 years) Then after the state I got popped by the Feds.

We gave kids a good place to work on weekends and nothing really hard and not late but past the legal time. The point - younger people CAN'T LEGALLY WORK as the Government won't let them. They are learning not to work at a young age.

My kids will go to McDonalds or where ever and eat out every day. They can't save enough money to make a down payment on a house.

If people treated kids good - there is no reason why they could not work. Learn like the older generation where a hand shake was a verbal contract and was made good.

Pirl, I am debating which compost bin to get... I just got new soil and in my opinion is too heavy... so I need some good things to mix it I had to get compost this year, but I hope to make my own...

I have a huge area in the back that has a lot of poison ivy... is there anything you can use to kill poison ivy that will not disturb the soil? which is really great soil, next to water so it's moist and soft, and I wish I can use it in the future.... but I don't want to put poison to kill those beasts and damage that healty soil....

I remember growing up in Brazil and never having that much trash... food leftowver was donated to 2 families that raised pigs, all veggie scraps where used in the veggie garden and for the plants... we had a gardener that took care of all the veggies and cut our grass with a regular mower and did the corners with huge scissors like .... he was so perfectionist... we never got herbs in supermarkets... we grew everything...
and I miss those days... everything was fresh and healthy... it's funny how we used to put chewing tabbaco in water and use that to spray against some bugs... no pesticides...

adding more fuel ....

Regarding work, I see the difference in my 2 nephews... one grew up with having a maid... (he is a wonderful guy) and now Alec - 6years old who loves to help and had a great time "working" at the Registry of Motor Vehicle with my sister yesterday... I am helping raising him to work early.... enough of this nonsense of being lazy!!!! and the other thing I think is so overwhelming is the amount of toys one single child has... I made a lot of my toys growing up... now everything is ready!
so more plastic to polute the enviroment... because most of the toys are really plastic trash...


This message was edited Apr 27, 2007 4:01 PM

Kassia - I have no experience with store bought composters but maybe someone on a compost thread (we must have one at DG) can help you with their recommendations.

For poison ivy it's hand pulling (with gloves, long sleeved top and high neck) and it should be bagged separately from the rest of your trash - even separate from garden waste since if your town does make compost it could infect everything. You can't even burn it because the fumes can be poisonous. Maybe your local yellow pages have people who remove it. Good luck with that awful problem.

So many people live in that disposable world today. One couple I know got rid of their toaster oven because it was dirty. What next?

You see . . . I am really lazy - too lazy to work extra hours to pay for disposable stuff! I nursed my babies 'cause I'm just too lazy to bother with bottles, used cloth diapers 'cause I'm too lazy to dash to the store to buy disposables. My wardrobe is appalling 'cause I don't want to work too hard and earn extra money to buy fashion items.

I would rather work hard at stuff that pleases me (like my gardens), rather than work hard to make someone else rich.

Interestingly, my laziness actually benefits the environment. For anyone who is interested, the key to helping the environment is to re-use items, not merely recycle (e.g. re-manufactor) items. Oh, yeah, and cut back on consumption - except plants, of course!

I'd be mortified for any of you sweet people to see my gardening clothes. Two pair of shorts are 18 years old and many tee shirts are more than 10 years old. Pathetic but comfortable.

I have several younger employees. Wonderful people, but I am amazed at their lack of ecological concern. They don't consider coffee or water that doesn't come in a disposable single-serving container. Then they don't recycle their bottle. Fortunately, my buddy & I are the veterans AND the supervisors so they now recycle to avoid another lecture from the baby boomers. I thought these 20 & 30 somethings were raised greener.

I am a pretty typical American consumer in many ways and it sometimes bothers me that I've become as much of a consumer. But we compost, recycle, drive high mileage cars, avoid synthetic fertilizers like Miracle Grow and avoid pesticides.

I try to recycle, especially because it's picked up at the curb for free - bags of trash are $4 each. If you take the plastic (recyclable) cover off of a cardboard (recyclable) container of vegetables (compostable) you can recycle every component! But I'm not out there in the kitchen watching the trash like a hawk... and on Trash Day, I'm not the one putting out the trash bags. I see the kids putting their coffee cups with plastic lids into the trash and think "if they would just take the cardboard cup apart from the plastic cover...." But then I don't buy them single servings of things. I feel pretty powerless. I think I'll put a composting container in the kitchen.

xx, Carrie

We have ours under the kitchen sink.

I keep a plastic container in the freezer for veggies that I dont feed to the worms. When it gets full - or in the winter - when the ground is not icy - I take it out to the compost pile. The veggies don't smell bad when they are frozen!

recycling is made so easy for us. the town my son lives in has so many rules. one day a month for glass, one day for cardboard, etc. if they forget they have to save it another month. I can put out anything every week as long as it is separated. I was thrilled when the town started the recycling program. I was recycling glass 20 years ago when you had to take it where they had huge dumpsters divided for the different colors. It's a small thing to do and takes so little time. I always smile when I see my son cut up the plastic rings from the soda cans before he puts them in the trash,too. He doesn't want to be responsible for any waterfowl winding up with one around it's neck.

I have a friend who will take an envelope out of my trash to recycle it but she uses paper towels like crazy. Makes no sense to me. When my grandmother was alive she stopped using paper napkins. She had cloth ones and didn't mind washing them.

We have curbside recycling for paper, plastic, cans, and glass, and the recycling center accepts many other things, too. Recycling is free. Yet, we are pretty much the only family in my neighborhood that puts out stuff on recycling day. I just don't get it - it doesn't take that much effort to separate recyclable items - we have laundry baskets in the garage for each item - yet no one seems to do it. At the same time, people in this town complain about smell from the landfill - do they not see a connection between minimizing trash in landfills and quality of life?

Gram, we use lots of paper towels, too. Unfortunately, it's better hygiene with kids around. I dislike it, but it makes for a cleaner, germ free house with fewer colds. We do use cloth napkins at dinner, though. I'm always torn with the question of energy use - does it take more energy to wash those napkins than the energy that went into manufacturing, transporting those paper napkins? Plus the paper industry is one of the most polluting industries out there. It's a complex issue. I used to be a consultant to the chemical industry (I'm a chemist) and among other things, worked on studies for GE plastics. The answers are just not that easy to obtain, because even recycling uses lots of energy. Plus, in the end, it's often dependent on the values that you hold dear - are you looking to save energy, natural resources such as wood, trying to cut down on landfill space, etc? It's hard to assign value to each of these relative to one another. What happens is that any study is naturally skewed towards one thing or another, but they really all affect each other.

That's a good point ckk. Energy is just as important to conserve. I have to switch my light bulbs.

ckk, you make some excellent points and it's very difficult to sort it all out. you make different choices in a household with small children than I would with just 2 adults. I tend to try to get more mileage out of paper. If I can use 1/2 a paper towel, I do. If I use a napkin for myself and it will do for another meal, I save it.

Anita, I've just bought some of the small spiral flouresent lightbulbs that fit in a regular fixture.

I try to be conscious of all these things, without going overboard. And I was just trying to make a point about my friend. I think she tries to make me feel guilty about throwing away an envelope (our town does not recycle white paper), but then she'll use all my paper towels when I have clean towels in the kitchen. And I think this is typical of some people's behavior. They make a good show.

Gram - I'm with you on paper towels and paper napkins. I can't stand it when people use a paper towel to clean up a drop of coffee on a counter and then just throw it away! It really irks me.

We've bought light bulbs in big box stores and until they're used up I'm not changing bulbs. I couldn't bear to just throw them out.

It's a complex issue and we all could do a lot more to take care of the environment. I know I'm not doing enough and it makes me feel guilty. I recycle but there are days when I'm just too tired to clean out a peanut butter jar and I find myself throwing it out instead. You guys have gotten me thinking more about recycling, etc. and I need to work harder to take care of the environment. I think we are doing better than the previous generation. My father's attitude was he didn't care because he wasn't going to be around when the environment would be affected with his pollution. He was a farmer who used "lots of chemicals". His attitude started changing somewhat as he saw his loved ones developing cancer and other health issues. Since I've been babysitting my grandson I've gone to conserving my energy instead of conserving the environment and I've got to work more on the latter so that my grandson will have a future.

Gram, you're right, of course, about waste. I think that most people want to do the right thing, but then if it's convenient to do things another way it's just too easy to give in. We're just so spoiled here! We have abundant resources, smart people who know how to develop products, and lots of incentive to waste. I guess that it just takes time to educate people that it's in everyone's best interest to be mindful of the environment. But, change is hard, and there are very powerful lobbies that have important peoples' ears right now to fight against responsible, sustainable growth and living.

I think that lightbulbs are a great example of this. When those energy saving bulbs came out, they stunk. They were noisy, gave terrible light, and they were hard to dispose of responsibly. They've improved, but it's hard to get the word out. This is one of those areas that government can play a role by giving incentives for manufacture or use, or passing legislation to mandate. I know that many people don't like government interference, but sometimes leadership is needed. JMHO

What's that saying they have in Vermont? Fix it up, Daa da dout, use it up, go without? I agree with everybody.

My children, well, I guess it started right after me, have a whole new vocabulary. "Have it your way", "chilllax", stressed out, too tired, too upset, too angry... to clean their rooms or do homework!! If I had a teacher who assigned a lot of homework, it wasn't "too much", it was just a lot of homework. It might be a "hard, tough" teacher, but never "too tough" or "too hard". AND WHO DESERVES A BREAK TODAY? Mommy, I need to chill out before I start my homework. Mommy, write me a note that I was too stressed out to do my homework. WHAT??? We may have been stressed out, but we did our homework anyway. Maybe we did deserve a break today, but not before homework. I always wrote very carefully worded notes like "Emma claims to be experiencing continuing pain in her L knee after banging it on the breakfast table, and wishes to be excused from gym." I never expected the teachers to fall for them, but I guess they just checked that there was a note, and excused the little brats.

Sorry - I don't know what came over me.....

xx, Carrie

LOL Carrie - love that gym note! Too bad the teachers didn't read it - they would have gotten a good laugh!

You know, homework is quite the controversial subject these days. My youngest, who just started middle school this year, had an average of 4 hours of homework per day last year in 5th grade. It was rough, but she slogged through it. I don't remember having that much homework in the 60's/70's.