So.  Too busy and tired to cook, I took an out-of-town friend to the original Patsy's in my neighborhood.  And then I couldn't stop.  The combination of flavors elevated itself to need from want, demanding that I buy pizza twice more over the weekend.  One might suggest that I'm searching for the Ur-pizza, Plato's pizza, the taste of a perfect pizza I had once when I was ten.  But really I just love it.  Need it.  I promise I'll try making it.  

(Pizza might have to become a Fix exception.)

I'm not sure why not buying anything new also means getting rid of stuff.  I've unloaded lots of crap in the last few months - I guess Fix helps me sort out what I really need.  Or maybe I have more time to go through my stuff.  Or something.  Today I finally dumped a busted computer at the NYC Department of Sanitation's electronics recycling event, which happily coincided with Earth Day.  Does anyone know what happens to this stuff once they haul it away? 

The photo was taken at 9.30 in the morning - I wonder what it looked like at the end of the day!

NYC Dept. of Sanitation Events Calendar (did you know such a thing existed?)

A couple of weeks ago, a journalist asked me why I thought so many people are undertaking green-simplicity projects right now.  I told her that, for me, and maybe for other people, it's coming out of a generalized political dread that required me to do something - anything - to feel a little more active and headed towards change.  Around the world, there are messes getting more hideous by the minute - many of them in America's name - and I think personal environmental efforts make people feel a little less out of control. 

Thomas L. Friedman's piece in the NYT Magazine this weekend takes this idea a lot further, positing that going "Geo-Green" is the US's biggest, best, and perhaps only, chance to maintain/regain world leadership and promote democracy.  His argument is most compelling in the first two sections of the article, in which he identifies the "petroauthoritarians" and makes the case that energy innovations made in the military may provide some of the technology and momentum needed to improve energy efficiency back in the US.  So I guess he might say that little homemaker Greens are tapping into this idea, spreading the word, and gathering support for the (hopefully!) coming global push for eco-efficiency.

Clearly being green is trendy this year: you can buy a bunch of green stuff and watch a tv series about it!  But why now?  People around the world have been doing eco-friendly things for a long time.  There have been 37 Earth Days since 1970, and I'm reading books that are decades old, prescribing the things Mr. Friedman talks about in his article.  I think a lot of people might argue that the science got more clear and the message to more people, thanks to An Inconvenient Truth, or that people are now realizing that "time is running out."  What do you think?  What's different now and will this one pass by like previous green trends before large-scale change comes?

Spend $5K on a report about developing and marketing green products!

Marketplace on green jobs

The NYC Compact group recently had an entertaining discussion.  I've excerpted it here.  Keep in mind that most posts get one or two reponses, max.  This one had at least ten.

Original post

I have a purchase dilemma. Our apartment gets the occasional mouse, usually when the seasons change. Well, Spring Mouse has arrived. I know how he gets in. The hole is in a corner behind a cabinet where I cannot reach, and believe me I've tried...

The mouse is here for the dog food, and it is smart and bold. If Spring Mouse is the same as his predecessors, then he knows to avoid spring traps and jump over and around glue traps, no matter how artfully I arrange them, even taping them to walls, trying to create an unavoidable tar pit and snap trap obstacle course.

My friend said there was a test of wills last night around 3am. The mouse was in the room, the dog was going nuts, and it took the better part of an hour to flush Spring Mouse from her room. She told me about the year she spent in a mice infested apartment building. She swears by the electric trap and has begged me to purchase one. At her old apartment the management put all kinds of poison down, used lots of traps, but they did nothing. Her electric trap caught 26 mice.

If it works as well as she says, I can see getting one. It isn't like I won't need to use it again, and no traps I have tried before have ever caught a mouse in this apartment...If I lived alone, I could wait this out with my snap/glue traps and diligent cleaning and food storage. But with one roommate, one house guest and a dog-- none of whom are on the Compact--argh.  So...I think I'm going to buy a better mouse trap today.

Hi. As someone who is really against killing other species if conceivably possible (which I think in most cases it is), I'd say ... try some other alternatives.  So, a few ideas, based on my experiences:

A.. I have typically found effective putting cotton balls with peppermint essential oil near the point of entry is a good way to dissuade.

B. what about a humane trap... where you would release the mouse in a park or some other green area ? I can't say if that's really the best thing for the mouse but it's better than other alternatives.   

C. is it really so bad co-existing? most mice don't want you to see them. 

We're trying to live with less consumption. I think we can also live with more compassion. I lived with one mouse for about eight months.

Re: Ack! A mouse!

i know some nuns who had a rat problem in their backyard. these nuns are like - when hippies become nuns. the whole group were talking about poison b/c the prob. was getting so severe. so, two of the more alternative type hippie nuns went out to the backyard and talked to the rats. explained that the others were at their wits end and ready to kill them and that they (the rats) had two choices. the nuns swear that the rats left their garden. i'm just saying.

Re: Ack! A mouse! 

I highly recommend the humane traps - conscious killing is still killing.

My response - and here's where I'll lose all the new readers...

Peanut butter and snap traps work like a charm. 

My wardrobe grew considerably in the last week, without buying a thing!  My grandmother and I resurrected some clothes that had been sitting in my closet for over a year with tears, missing buttons, stains, etc.  We've done mending together before but I paid closer attention this time...still, I mostly reattached buttons while she undertook complicated repairs.  She and my mom had the brilliant idea of using the cuffs of a beautiful embroidered blouse as cap sleeves when the stains and rips on the long sleeves couldn't be fixed, thereby saving it from the trash.  It will be a great new summer shirt.

My grandmother is an accomplished seamstress: she made clothes for three kids and a husband in the 50s and 60s, my mom's wedding dress in '69, baby clothes and dress-ups for me and my sister in the 80s.  I think her latest big project was re-lining my black winter coat - an enormous and painful job that allowed me to get an additional year or two out of a beloved style.  She double-lined the pockets so my keys wouldn't shred through and attached a label that says "specially fashioned by grandmother."  Way better than a designer label.  She became so good at sewing because they couldn't afford store-bought clothes back in the day; she noted how today a spool of thread costs $3 and I suspect the black satin for the coat wasn't very cheap either - it's cheaper now not to sew.

I dream about sewing for myself because I admire my mom and grandmother so much in this regard.  It's a totally romantic and nostalgic notion, even more so because I lack the basic patience required and my interest is largely theoretical.  Still, I tried to learn as much as I could in this recent session: my grandmother showed me some tricks and above all encouraged me to get a machine so I can do some bigger repairs on my own.  Once I got over the disappointment that I couldn't learn to sew in a long weekend, I decided to listen to her advice and cut myself some slack.  I already have the skills to do little things, simply from years of watching her and my mom, I just can't let it pile up so much.  And I might be able to develop a sewing imagination, the kind that makes cap sleeves out of cuffs, but it's going to take a lot longer than I want it to.  Now, if I can cultivate the patience...!

This one is a bit of a cop-out: No Impact Man wrote yesterday about the perceived conflict between anti-consumption efforts and the Cradle to Cradle model for design.  This is my response.  I was trying to get at some of these issues in my post on Fast Fashion, and I've elaborated a little bit here.

---

Good points, No Impact Man.  I was (am) so excited by Cradle to Cradle, appreciating most its central metaphor as a positive and sensible approach to stuff.  While No Impact (and Fix) and Cradle to Cradle aren't exactly at odds - it's clear they'll have to work together until technology allows us to consume without impact - the ways in which each engages our individual and cultural psychologies are. 

Cradle to Cradle design takes the view that we've arrived at where we are for reasons beyond simply that stuff is available, and since we're here now with lots of stuff, it's going to be hard to stop people from consuming it or wanting to consume it.  (Especially when America's biggest export is the images of its abundance.) I would reckon that most people who are overweight/do drugs/don't get enough sleep know it's bad for their health but are compelled to/choose to engage in unhealthy eating/getting high/etc. anyway.  In this way, Cradle to Cradle at its extreme is like a magic pill - do all you want and don't get hurt.  No Impact, on the other hand, is like moderation that keeps people from getting sick in the first place, and appeals to those of us with the control freak/moderate/hard work temperaments.  Each ideology has its own dangers, of course: binge-y people rage at the holier-than-thou skinnies who have no problem taking just one. 

As a culture, we're exhibiting a pretty binge-y psychology, which would require a lot of adjustment to change.  Does it take a year to revise our underlying metaphors and assumptions about prosperity, health, cleanliness, safety?  A decade?  A generation?  Let's say we someday arrive at Cradle to Cradle utopia - do we swing right back into consumption after years of sacrifice?  It probably wouldn't be that drastic: we'll reduce while feverishly inventing new things, but a lot of people argue that we don't have time for that.  And is this balance another version of utopia too?

Welcome, new readers! (Thanks to Risa at culturebot and Colin, No Impact Man.) I'm off to visit my grandmother, with a gigantic bag of mending.  I'm looking forward to time away from the computer, among other things - I'll write again when I get back next week.

Get this: so far in March I've purchased coffee drinks 9 times; in February I bought 11 of them.  Why?  Because I can.  Prior to Fix I might have purchased coffee once or twice a month when out meeting a friend.  But I'm finding that when I feel bored or tired or otherwise uncheerful, I get a little charge out of the one thing I can buy.  I'm not buying a small decaf, either: it's cinnamon dulce lattes and spring chai specials all the way.  I'm appalled that I get satisfaction out of this - the leaning up against the rules, the expensive sugary drinks, the embrace of Starbucks!  Even worse, now that my wallet is considerably fuller, I've been hopping into cabs at an alarming rate.  Technically, it's within the rules, given that it's transportation and not a thing...but it's a car, the enemy of cyclists everywhere!  What's more, I enjoy the experience - it's easy, it's fast, it feels luxurious.  Fix isn't about denying myself pleasure, but I wonder if it's possible to give myself a little treat without buying something.  The feeling I get from buying the coffee is quite distinct from the feeling I'd have if I were to sing a song or lie down in the grass or stand on my head.  And could I do those in the middle of the afternoon at work?  Still, I think I might have to nix the coffee drinks and cab rides going forward -- and I'm quite certain my sneaky inner yuppie will find something else to take their place.

I hung out yesterday with a group of girls I haven't seen in awhile.  We talked about Fix for a bit, and one of them asked about "necessities."  "I mean, you've bought stuff from the drugstore, right?"  Well, no. 

Yes, I've deemed soap and shampoo and deodorant necessities.  But let's be honest: how many bars of soap or bottles of shampoo and lotion are moldering away in the dark corners of your bathroom?   Girls receive bath crap by the ton from coworkers or people who don't know them very well.  Or there's the big bottle of lotion I bought that smells too fruity and doesn't work as well as some other brand.  But I don't want to throw it away, because it's still "good"!  And it can't go to charity because it's opened and that's a lot of effort for a bottle of lotion/five bars of soap/travel shampoo anyway.  I'm writing this not to castigate anyone for clutter or waste but to point out that for a lot of people, maybe most of the people I know and love, soap isn't a necessity -- exactly the right kind is.  We all have things like this: toothpaste, tissues, socks, underwear, etc.  Lucky for me soap is totally negotiable and our hostess Shanan unloaded a bunch of high-end beauty products on me.  Not sure I'm so flexible on deodorant, though - and I'm about to run out.

I recently finished Rathje and Murphy's Rubbish!, a book I'll come back to when I investigate trash in more detail.  Though a little out-of-date, it left a couple of lasting impressions: for one thing, I learned that over forty percent of the waste in landfills is paper -- and it doesn't biodegrade like we all think it does.  Furthermore, at the time of the book's writing (10 years ago), there wasn't a large enough market for recycled paper products to make it an eco-efficient enterprise.   I already avoid some of the pitfalls on paper: I read the newspaper online, I use the backs of printed out directions and maps and whatnot for the nine million lists I make a week.  But I'd like to reduce more.  Five minutes on the phone today supposedly means that I won't get catalogs from J. Crew or Anthropologie or other "similar companies" anymore (we'll see...).  When I'm buying things again, I'll aim to purchase products with 30% or more post-consumer recycled content.  Other ideas?