How many times do you need reminding? If it’s yellow, let it mellow.
That’s right. Say so long to the ick factor: Cut back on the 30 gallons
of water you, an average American, flushes down the toilet every
day.
And how many times do you have to be asked “paper or plastic”? How
many times do you answer “neither”? That canvas bag you’re using at the
grocery store is reducing the 100 billion plastic bags Americans throw
away every year.
But say you say “plastic.” Go ahead, but get some use out of it. Use
it also to pack your lunch, pick up after your pooch, line your
bathroom trash can, or return it to your supermarket for recycling.
And while you’re at it, do something about those ghosts robbing you
blind — the electronic “ghosts” that, according to the U.S.
Department of Energy, account for 20 percent of your household energy
bill. Unplug the toaster. Try turning off the clock display on your
oven. And disconnet any charger not in use. (Extreme measure: Switch
off the power strip to your computer and printer before you’re out the
door.)
Simple stuff? Yes. Obvious stuff? Not if you’re a knucklehead who
needs to be told to switch to lighter sheets in the summer and to open
your windows when the weather permits. But the simple, the obvious,
and, what’s most important, the doable stuff: They’re all outlined in
Simply Green: Easy, Affordable Tips for Eco-Friendly Families
(Citadel Press/Kensington) by Melissa and David Seligman.
They’re a married couple in Kansas — he’s in the army, she’s a
stay-at-home mom — with two kids, and they’re not out to change
the world — just that piece of it they can change.
And that includes you. But they’re not out to berate you. Or preach to
you. Or scare you to death with Armageddonesque images. Or burden you
with overwhelming statistics. What they’re hoping to do is serve as a
reminder:
“You don’t have to do everything to be green. You just have to do
something.” That includes, for starters, stopping smoking.
From Captivating Combinations
According to the Seligmans, cigarette butts, with their nasty
plastic component, are the most littered items in the world.
Overwhelming statistic: 4.5 trillion thrown down annually. Ten to 12
years: That’s how long that plastic survives in the environment.
How much green, though, is too much green? Norman Winter says, yes,
green’s mandatory. He even writes that “the bones or foundation from
green must be in place.” But he disagrees with another authority who
once instructed a symposium audience that “green is the only color you
need. Let color come from your friends and visitors.”
Who is this disagreeable Norman Winter, and what the hell is he
talking about? He’s the “Southern Garden Guru,” from Mississippi State
University. He’s talking about plant color. And he’s written
Captivating Combinations: Color and Style in the Garden
(University Press of Mississippi), but you don’t need to have a green
thumb to appreciate Winter’s eye for spectacular plants and for rich,
colorful combos, revealed in more than 200 full-color photos.
And on the subject of colorful combos: Sid Yiddish (aka Charles
Bernstein) is a self-described poet, actor, throat singer, tap dancer,
and possible spy. Mykel Board is a novelist with 17 titles to his
credit and a columnist with more than 20 years’ experience writing on
politics and sex for Maximumrocknroll. He’s also a travel
writer, and he wrote of his travels in Mongolia in Even a Daughter
Is Better Than Nothing (Garrett County Press) in 1995. That’s where
Board recounts his adventures teaching English at the National
University in Ulaanbaatar and his overcoming multiple hazards, among
them participation in a sheep-killing ritual and suffering from chronic
constipation.
Xanadu is in Mongolia. Xanadu’s in Memphis too: Xanadu Music &
Books at 2200 Central. So it makes sense: Board will be signing Even
a Daughter Is Better Than Nothing (and signing his collection of
columns, I, a Me-ist?) at Xanadu on Monday, April 20th, at 6:30
p.m. Call the store at 274-9885 for more information. Look for Yiddish
(aka Bernstein) to be on hand too for maximum mishegas.