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October 6 , 2006
 The Los Angeles Observatory is reopening after a $93 million restoration project. The good news is that the facility, built in 1935, has been given a twenty-first century face- and technology-lift. The bad news is, that Los Angelenos can no longer drive to this science-and-recreation center on a whim and enjoy either the shows or the view to the ocean.
The city has decided, that “for a time” visitors must make reservations to visit the observatory and will have to ride a shuttle there from a remote parking lot. The shuttle will cost an extra fee, and having to make a reservation will take much of the joy out of taking a spontaneous jaunt to the top of, otherwise free and accessible, Griffith Park. This new rule will also restrict hikers, hundreds of whom use the trails behind the facility every day.
The shuttle and reservation program is being billed as temporary — though no end date has been announced. But it is hard to imagine that any program that enriches the city will be abandoned down the road. It is much easier to envisage the city declaring that the shuttles are a wonderful “success” and keeping the program in place forever.
Time will tell. But, in many ways, Los Angeles, with this single act, has just cut off one of the best recreations it has to offer to its many residents who cannot afford $8 shuttle tickets, or who think hiking is not a scheduled activity for which the city should require 48-hours notice.
September 10 , 2006
 No Mercy
Leslie Van Houten has spent the last 37 years of her life in the California Institution for Women in Corona for stabbing a woman to death. During her years in prison, she has completed two university degrees, worked in the chaplain's office and lead drug and alcohol programs for other women. She is considered a model prisoner who has not received any disciplinary action since 1976 (for marijuana possession).
Despite her apparent rehabilitation, Van Houten will probably never be paroled, as she discovered again this past September when a two-member panel of the state parole board denied her freedom for the fifteenth time.
You see, Van Houten is no ordinary murderer. On the night of August 9, 1969, she took part in the brutal stabbings of Rosemary and Leno La Bianca. It was the second night of the infamous, Los Angeles killing spree masterminded by homicidal, Hollywood lunatic, Charles Manson.
Those two nights of savagery, which included victims Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Parent and Jay Sebring, will forever be weighted with an importance that is rooted in the bone-rattling terror they engendered in middle-class Americans who couldn’t help but imagine that it could have been their house that was randomly broken into, or their seemingly-benign child who committed the killings. For the La Bianca’s relatives, former Los Angeles prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi and everyone else who has both benefited from or been entertained by the sensational, cottage industry that is the Manson Family, this event will never be viewed like any other murder.
But saturating these killings with more meaning than they can absorb and holding the perpetrators to a different standard than less-known criminals, contributes to the general lack of acknowledgment — by both the public and the judicial system — that most of the killers were little more than teenagers when they committed these crimes. In fact, Van Houten was only 19-years-old in 1969 and, by all accounts, one of the most easily-led members of Manson’s clan.
To forget that most people are capable of committing seriously regrettable acts when under the influence of drugs and a maniacal Svengali — particularly when they are young and impressionable — is to forget that human beings are flawed. To forget that the people we were at 19 is, likely, very different from the ones we may be at 57 is to deny that time and experience can change us — often for the better.
At a 2004 parole hearing, Van Houten's attorney, Christie Webb said, "She is not the person she was at age 19 when she participated in the crimes. She has not taken drugs in three decades. ... And she has insight into how she could have participated in these crimes and how she can make amends."
Van Houten has spent all of her adult life locked behind bars. She has not married, had children, or helped or harmed anyone else in the general population for almost 40 years. Furthermore, she is, by all indications, filled with extreme remorse for the acts that led to her incarceration, and, in her case, the likelihood of recidivism is pretty slim. Should she have the opportunity to live outside prison to show that rehabilitation is possible and that Americans are capable of forgiving even the most heinous mistakes? The California parole board says, “no, for now.”
Van Houten has paid dearly for her crimes, though her victims’ family would disagree that she can every pay enough. Surely they, who have come to each of her parole hearings during the last almost-four decades to testify against her, believe she is in a category of killer who does not deserve any more mercy than she was capable of showing as a teenager.
Yet, in the end, keeping her locked-up may be a strange kind of mercy. After all, this woman, has spent so much of her life living inside the infantilizing, prison system, that she might not be able to survive on the outside anyway. Next year she will have another chance to find out. But, if the past is any indication of the future, this twisted mercy will be the only type she will ever receive.
July 21, 2006
 Fowl Messages
They’re fucking with eggs again. Yes, those versatile, protein-packed little nuggets that come from chickens are under attack. But unlike the assault by the ersatz-nutrition industry during the 1970s — that equated over-easy with overly-hard arteries and left poultry farmers with yolk on their faces — today it’s the advertising industry that’s turning this almost-perfect food into something distasteful.
This week CBS announced that it had hired a company called EggFusion to begin laser-imprinting advertising onto the pristine shells of eggs. Now, when you make that omelet or soufflé, you’ll be forced to read some idiotic, punny message like: “CSI - Crack the Case on CBS” or “The Amazing Race - Scramble to Win on CBS.”
Americans are already so inundated with advertising that it is impossible to make it though a day without having half a dozen corporate logos imprinted upon one's unconscious. I’m not talking about traditional ads, like those found in publications or on billboards. I’m talking about entire buildings and vehicles covered with printed Mylar messages. I’m talking about product placements in every movie and TV show. I’m talking about the fifteen minutes of commercials one pays to see before watching a film in a multi-plex. I’m talking about urinals, kindergarteners’ milk cartons and even one’s clothing covered with inescapable messages to consume ever more.
Food — once removed from its packaging — has been one of the last refuges from advertising. But EggFusion and CBS have put an end to that. And, if that isn’t enough to make one want to barf, US Airways also announced this week that it would begin printing advertising on its airsickness bags.
Where does it end? Will we soon see ads on the skins of fruits and vegetables? How about media messages on toilet paper? That’s a blank surface no one’s staked a claim to yet. NBC could take the initiative and print little witticisms like “Same old shit, different night,” or “Must Pee TV,” and place them in every crapper in the country.
Unless we’re ready to see the Statue of Liberty sporting a Nike swoosh, or the Golden Gate Bridge covered with photos of Jessica Simpson's ass in cut-offs, it’s time to put an end to marketers’ power to transform everything from our landscape to our breakfasts into ads. Since the only thing that works to change the way American companies do business is to hurt them financially, I say, it’s time to boycott eggs and those who have turned them into marketing tools. If A&P stores — where the first of this eggvertising will appear — see that these intrusive messages are keeping shoppers away, then maybe they and their marketing partners will get their slimy paws off of our food.
Today it's eggs. Tomorrow it could be the sidewalk in front of your house that's relentlessly urging you to buy something. Reject the assault. Reject the eggs. And, don't forget to tell CBS to fuck off. Once Bob Sheiffer is replaced by Katie Couric on the Evening News, there won't be any reason to left to watch that network.
May 9, 2006
Great Presidential Moments 
Is the staff of the Daily Show writing President Bush’s speeches these days?
During a 2004 press conference, when asked to name his biggest mistake in office, Bush replied, “You know, I just — I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hadn't yet.”
Asked recently by the German newspaper Bild to name his most wonderful moment while in office, he replied, “I would say the best moment was when I caught a 7-1/2-pound largemouth bass on my lake."
When your approval ratings are in the low 30s, maybe it is time to tell a few fish stories. After all, what does the President have to lose? He can’t be elected again — no matter what Diebold says — and this is as a good a time as any to try out material he’ll need when he gives those well-paid speeches that are sure to fill up the years following his exit from national office. "I just bombed Iraq, and boy are my…," well, you get the idea.
In any case, his jokes are getting better, and if this stuff isn’t just a gimme for Comedy Central, maybe he’s really auditioning for John Stewart’s Oscar-host gig.
May 6, 2006
 What Ever Happened to Henry Farrell?
What kind of juicy case study would a psychologist create from the life and works of screenwriter Henry Farrell, the author of such macabre, woman-bashing fare as Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte?
Farrell, 85, died at his home in Pacific Palisades on March 29. His works included the novels, The Hostage and Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me — which was made into a film by Truffaut. Born Charles Farrell Meyers, the pseudonymous Los Angeles native began writing screenplays in California after serving a stint in the Army stint during WWII.
Each of his books and films deals with two reoccurring themes. One features the actress who has fallen from her lofty stardom and sunk into homicidal madness. He made great use of this in Baby Jane and came back to it in other works like Gorgeous Kid.
The other topic that seemed to interest him was the use and betrayal of children. His stories are full of killer mothers, child stars gone to rot and kidnapped innocents.
His recently finished novel, a ditty titled, A Piece of Clarisse, is the story of a man who regularly receives pieces of a woman's body in his mailbox.
Growing up in Los Angeles is hard on everyone. The sycophantic worship of beauty and celebrity that permeates the fabric of this city could drive the most stable person to dream of, at the least, exposing the feet of clay of those whose mediocrity is endlessly celebrated. To be able perform this deed on the page or, better yet, on the screen — and make money doing so — must provide a deep sense of satisfaction.
On the other hand, what the hell kind of childhood did Farrell endure that made him portray women with such hatred? Where is Dr. Phil when you really need him?
March 30, 2006
It's a Gas, Gas, Gas
Jimmy Carter was unable to enact energy conservation legislation in the ‘70s because he refused to issue an executive order that would have made it law. Instead, he deferred the decision to Congress — a technicality he could have bypassed had he not been worried about winning another term. We all know how that turned out. 
Now our ex-oilman, President Bush, is asking Congress to allow him to enact legislation that would increase the mileage requirements on automobiles. If he didn’t need their approval to wage war in Iraq, why should he need them to change a little thing like CAFE standards?
In the meantime, Americans are watching gasoline prices inch up towards $4 per gallon while oil companies are enjoying record profits. The world’s largest oil company, Exxon, just reported profits of $8.4 billion for the first three months of this year. Meanwhile, Exxon chairman Lee Raymond has recently jumped ship with a golden parachute retirement package totaling nearly $400 million.
Senate Majority Leader, Dr. Bill Frist (R)— the man who decided Terri Schiavo was not brain dead based on watching a video tape of her drooling and bobbing — has proposed that the government give a $100 gas rebate to every American with an income of less than $125,000 per year. In exchange for this largess, Americans will have to fork over the long-disputed Arctic Wildlife Refuge.
Frist is determined to force a vote on this issue very soon. While $100 might sound like a nice sum to offset personal gas bills, the price to be paid as a nation for this short-sighted solution is the loss of a pristine piece of America’s dwindling wilderness — so it can be despoiled by, I don’t know, maybe Exxon. Now the Democrats — a party that occasionally defends the environment — will be in the position of denying poor, working folk money they desperately need. Or, they’ll have compromise the few principles they have and go along with this despicable plan — all so that they might win a few seats in the House this November.
To confuse the issues further, the oil companies have had their paid talking heads on every available TV program this week trying to do damage control with a public that is outraged by their windfall profits. They recite litanies of confusing statistics and percentages to make it sound as if all their money is going to maintain their infrastructure. More frighteningly, they pass the buck of blame to foreign oil producers, claiming that the higher price of crude oil is the real culprit.
Their claims fit nicely with the Bush administration’s desire to continually demonize Middle-Easterners who control the majority of the world’s oil reserves. If the same people who vote for politicians who promise to put prayer back in schools get to thinking that it’s the Iranians who have us over an oil barrel, Bush and Co. will have an easy time getting the populace to go along with any war they care to wage in the general region.
Let the games continue.
March 2, 2006
The New Publishers
The problem with newspaper and magazine publishing today is that publishers invariably come from the ranks of ad salespeople. This has not always been the case. There was a time when one would see the names of editors or political firebrands heading the lists in staff boxes. But now, it’s mainly folk who have a background in sales who call the shots.
This is a problem in several ways, the most significant of which is that because these new publishers’ orientation is toward making money rather than providing information, publications, from the grittiest community newspapers to the glossiest national rags are filled with content that can only be described as advertorial. You see it when you open almost any magazine. Each story — about a new fashion trend, or must-have electronic device — is accompanied by list of products and where one can purchase them, as if, somehow, shopping was the ultimate aim of the magazine. Not coincidentally, you will often see paid ads in these publications, for the very same products that appear in the editorial content. In this way, the entire publication becomes a cheerleading device for advertisers.
When ad salespeople run publications you will rarely see editorial product that is critical of an advertiser or potential advertiser. Pick up any lifestyle-type of magazine, for instance, and compare the reviews of cosmetics to the ads placed nearby. You will not find a writer telling you that there is almost no benefit to using an expensive cosmetic with a miracle ingredient — something an impartial dermatologist would be willing to admit — when that advertiser has purchased a full-page touting their version of repackaged Vaseline. Even the restaurant reviews in your local rag will make the most mediocre burger joint sound like an epicurean’s dream-come-true. Again, notice that restaurant’s ad on the next page, or in the next issue, because a positive review is seen as a way to generate new business as well as to retain existing clients.
The second problem with the new publishers is that, because they think all writing should be in the service of advertising — essentially ad copy gussied-up to look like a story — they don’t value it. They don’t value this writing, and consequently, they don’t value the writers and pay them less-than living wages. “We can fill the paper with press releases for all I care,” a publisher recently told me. That is, indeed, what many publishers would prefer. That way they are free to spend more money on photo shoots displaying expensive products than on paying writers to do actual reporting.
The ascendancy of publishers with little background in writing or reporting has created a world awash in newspapers and magazines that have as little worth as most reality television programs. The editorial content is just filler between ads, and, in the end, serves the same purpose as ad copy — to get the reader to buy something,
There are still critical voices out there. There are still publications that focus on real issues, or that wedge news onto their pages here and there. They are likely run by people who did not get their jobs because they were better at conning someone out of money than the next person. You will recognize these publications when you read them because after you are finished thumbing through, you will be filled with ideas and information, rather than a sense that you need to polish off the credit card and rush to the local mall.
January 10, 2006
 No Time for Technology
The Consumer Electronics Show was held in Las Vegas, January 5-8. It is the annual traveling road show where technology innovators pitch their tents and preach to the slick Gods of gadgetry by rolling out their latest models of phones, MP3 players, video games, computers, audio and visual gear, wireless devices and a several combinations no one knew they needed.
Steve Jobs of Apple Computer baptized the new iPod phone. Bill Gates sermonized about the digital living room —which will be wired, he hopes, with his software and entertainment devices. Samsung blessed the YP-D1, a miracle device that takes pictures and video and plays music. And though nano is nicer, bigger is still better, so LG Electronics and Panasonic premiered, respectively, 103” and 102” plasma screen televisions.
On the one hand, I have to say, “Wow, but where are the combo TV-phone-PDA-MP3-camera-poker odds calculator-blenders that walk on water?” On the other, I have to admit I just don’t have time for all these new gadgets. I mean, wasn’t technology supposed to create devices that saved us time and made life easier? In the case of word processing I’d say the mark was hit (though I still take issue with the lie of the paperless society). But, with few other exceptions, I find that consumer technology takes up far more of my time than ever before and has made life infinitely more complicated than it was when I only had a record player and an answering machine to worry about.
For instance, I recently bought a new cell phone, and after two days of reading the manual I have only just managed to record a voice mail greeting. I still have not figured out how the software that comes with my digital camera works — nor can I be bothered to learn how to create picture albums from all those digital photos. I never download the artwork that goes with music in my iTunes program, and my Playstation has been slumbering next to the TV for the past year.
So far, the electronic age has, not only, not enabled me to spend my precious non-working moments pursuing leisure, it has instead forced me to spend countless hours doing a variety of things that I either once had others do for me — like manipulate and print photographs — or to learn time-consuming skills while sitting in front of a TV screen, that only enable me to spend more time sitting in front of that TV. My Tivo is a good example of this phenomenon. I used to merely watch broadcasts when they occurred. You catch a few, you miss a few, but so what? Now, however, I record and watch shows at my convenience. Yet, the Tivo records so many more programs that I would normally have made time for, that I have become a slave to the device, often spending entire days watching everything that’s been recorded to make room for more programs to be recorded in an endless M.C. Escher-like cycle.
The time sucking doesn’t end when you learn to use a new device, either, because every battery-powered bauble one buys is as obsolete as a pterodactyl by the time it comes off the shelf. Within the month or months it takes to learn how to program and use it, it’s time to buy and learn another. Plus each device has its own language and protocols. The commands for my camera are different from those to which my Blackberry or home alarm system responds. Each requires a password that is unique. Each has a dense manual to read. Each has a separate power cord or battery. Each beeps and buzzes and clamors ceaselessly for my attention. Just making this list makes me long for an Ambien.
Technology, at least much of the consumer-oriented type, is not saving me, or anyone I know, the time that was promised. It is certainly not saving anyone money. And, though I would never give up Adobe Creative Suite or the Internet, I want Steve Jobs to know I am not ready to adopt every new gizmo that comes along, no matter how cool it makes me look. Because, frankly, I don’t earn enough money to hire a personal assistant to program all those personal assistants. And, call me old fashioned, but when I do have some spare time, I’d rather read a novel than a manual.
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 After the six-year-long national nightmare that has been the Bush II administration, American citizens woke up this past November and voted some of his war-mongering, congressional henchmen out of office. Best of all, on the morning after the Republicans lost their death grip on the country, Mr. Bush fired incompetent Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. Though Rummy squeezed  more media coverage than he deserved from his long goodbye, as of now, his smug bullying will no longer be a regular fixture on TV newscasts.
 Yes, the tide really turned for Bush in 2006. Not only did he lose his imaginary mandate, he even lost the support of power-lackey journalist, Bob Woodward, who published State of Denial, his third book on the current administration — in which he belatedly discovers that Bush and Co. lied their way into the Iraq war and didn’t have a plan to win it once they got there. The Iraq Study Group Report, also published this year, in which Bush I buddy, James Baker, describes the situation in Iraq as “grave and deteriorating” and says “There is no guarantee for success in Iraq . . .” further lames this lamest of presidents.
In other happy publishing news, a book written by reviled-but-acquitted murderer, O.J. Simpson called, If I Did It, about how he would have killed his wife, if he had (but didn’t), was pulled by Harper-Collins boss, Rupert Murdoch, after a tremendous national outcry of disgust. As a Christmas bonus, the publisher unapologetically fired Judith Regan, who brought this book to press — and produced an also-cancelled, companion, TV interview with Simpson.
 O.J.’s not in jail, but Enron’s corporate pirate Jeffrey Skilling, and WorldCom’s Bernard ($6,000 shower curtain) Ebbers are. Also in the slammer is scumbag lobbyist, Jack Abramoff. For a comprehensive look at his felonious sins, watch Bill Moyers’ brilliant PBS documentary, Capitol Crimes.
 Another notable TV documentary this year was Spike Lee’s, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, about New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Lee’s interviews with survivors were moving in every way possible, and the star among those profiled was, surely, Phyllis Montana La Blanc. Her spunky, angry, raw responses to the horror of the disaster were unforgettable.
Though nearly 79,000 families applied for federal funds to rebuild their homes in Louisiana, as of Thanksgiving of this year, only 22 had received any cash. Still, during a trip to the state during turkey week, it looked like many Louisianans still retained the spirit to forge ahead — and even make some lemonade from the lemons. Of note is the stunning Hockney-like, collage, Waterline, created from post-Katrina pictures by Lafayette photographer, Gabriella Mills.
 Also notable this year was the debut of writer, producer, and actress, Tina Fey’s show 30 Rock. One of two new shows about the inside workings of a live, sketch comedy program (the other being Aaron Sorkin’s mind-numbing insult, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip), Fey has done her part to make it safe to be a smart, funny woman in America. With her defiantly brunette coif, nerdy glasses and witty repartee, she might be the media’s only rebuttal to blonde bimbos like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. It’s about time.
September 8 , 2006
In Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, sustainable farmer Joel Salatin describes how the best and brightest from the farm states have been recruited away from the land to work in “Dilbert’s cubicle”. This leaves the “D students,” behind to run the farms into the ground by using the toxic products and flawed ideas sold to them by the military-industrial complex. Salatin concludes, “It’s a foolish culture that entrusts its food supply to simpletons.” Indeed.
In the September 11, 2006 issue of Business Week, at the end of the lengthy cover story [Nightmare Mortgages] that outlines myriad ways banks and mortgage brokers have been luring people into taking out home loans they can’t afford, this quote appears:
“…Cindy Manzettie, chief credit officer for Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati, said it’s not the ‘lender’s responsibility’ to help the consumer determine the appropriate payment option each month… Paternalistic regulations that underestimate the intelligence of the American public do not work.”
What does work for these financial institutions is keeping average Joes ignorant about how low, initial, loan payments on adjustable rate mortgages will lead to bankruptcy, loan defaults and homelessness.
Also in the 9/11 issue of Business Week, is a story about how baggage delivery services can make travel easier by eliminating the need to stand in long lines to check baggage full of potentially explosive unguents [Leave Home Without It]. When talking about the cost of $1 per pound that these services charge, the writer quotes a woman only identified as “Janet, a stay-at-home mom whose husband is a partner at a New York hedge fund company.” She says, “For us, it makes traveling a real pleasure instead of a chore.”
Isn’t that lovely for Janet and her family? But, how is this information relevant for most stay-at-home Moms who can only fly if they find a cheap fare on Expedia and can’t afford another $200 to have their luggage disappear and reappear at their convenience? And how much does it cost to take that rickshaw to the gate, Janet, so that you don’t have to dirty the soles of your Prada loafers?
And last, President Bush, during an embarrassingly, softball CBS News interview with Katie Couric (finally, a news anchor with no balls) said, “One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror." I’ll bet. Maybe that’s because the terrorist attacks on the US were not ever connected to Bush's war of choice in Iraq.
July 21 , 2006
Veteran journalist Bill Moyers, is one of the few reasoned, intellectual voices left on television. When he stopped hosting  his PBS newsmagazine, NOW, last year, and left it in the hands of NPR’s David Brancaccio, it seemed that there would be nowhere left on the airwaves to find intelligent conversation. While Brancaccio has an inquiring spirit, he is too mired in post-modern, irony-loving, smarminess to evoke the scholarly kindliness that is Moyers’ hallmark.
All is not lost, however, because Mr. Moyers and PBS have teamed up on a new program called Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason. This hour-long show consists entirely of Moyers conversing with leading intellectuals — so far, mostly authors like Jeanette Winterson, Margaret Atwood and Mary Gordon — about the current state of faith and religion throughout the world.
During the program’s two, half-hour segments, real ideas are discussed — without screaming, humiliation, fancy graphics or sensationalism. In other words, it is unlike any other show on TV. Whether or not one agrees with the guests' beliefs, merely watching Faith and Reason will nurture reason and restore one’s faith in the possibility of a civilized world.
Columnist Molly Ivins has called for the Democratic Party to run Moyers for president during the 2008 election – if only to include him in the debates. It’s a nice idea, but, sadly, we don’t live in a world where reasonable men of ideas can become leaders of the new Rome — or even discuss important concepts on network TV. Still, you can see what you’re missing by turning in to your PBS station, or by podcasting Faith and Reason every week.
May 16, 2006
1.The cruise industry has been on the rise for the past decade. Yet, the amount of hazardous waste these ships dump throughout the world’s oceans and the notoriously low pay given to, and the overwork demanded from, their crews makes them the Wal-Marts of the Sea. When Ms. Magazine launched their inaugural feminist “guilt free vacation,” after the 2004 election, two activists, Crystal Uchino and Skunkrising decided to go along in order to shoot a documentary that takes that venerable women’s pub to task for using this decidedly nonprogressive means to raise money. Their eight-plus-minute film, Ms. Magazine Takes a Shit in the Ocean can be viewed at www.pmsmedia.org. Now who will take on The Nation?
2. When the governor of South Dakota signed the bill outlawing all abortions (except to save the life of the mother) last March, the president of the Oglala Sioux tribe, Cecilia Fire Thunder, begged to differ. A former nurse, and the tribe’s first female president, Fire Thunder volunteered the Pine Ridge Reservation, as a site for a Planned Parenthood clinic. Reservations aren’t just for gambling anymore.
3. Despite being used as a tool to help make her parents’ divorce ever more acrimonious, my 8-year-old niece informed me, in a desultory tone during a recent conversation, that she’s doing “okay.” Then, with real excitement in her voice she announced, "I'm reading at a fourth-grade level." Her father thinks it’s “okay” to take her for parental visits during which he closes her off in a room with her three-year-old brother for hours while he makes hay downstairs with his new girlfriend. Her mother thinks it’s “okay” to tell her to say she doesn’t want to talk to her Daddy when he calls. But somehow, she remains okay anyway — at least for now. Maybe it’s the reading.
March 2006
Second Hand Rose-Colored Glasses
A group of about 50 professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area have formed a group united by a vow to not buy anything new in 2006 — except food, health items and underwear. According to one member of the Compact, as they call themselves, their goal is to “get off the first-market consumerism grid, because consumer culture is destroying the world.” Compacters can still shop as long as what they’re buying is second-hand. Interestingly, many members of the group report that they have merely traded days spent at the mall or Target for days spent trolling garage sales, eBay and the like. It seems it’s not easy to quit anything. Still, even if thrift stores are the new Nicoderm, Compacters will be healthier for trying.
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