Girl Friday

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2008, I'll Kinda Miss You (But Not All the Plastic)

Happy New Year's Eve!  I'll be staying home tonight, cooking a traditional Mexican dinner for friends and avoiding the raucous of the bars.  Does this mean I'm officially old?

It could also mean I'm officially on spending lockdown, starting a month early in December instead of making it a New Year's resolution.  I've also put The Mexican on a budget (you could even call it an allowance) and he seems to think this means he can give me a nightly curfew.  Quid pro quo, in a way, I suppose.

2008 has been an excellent lesson in money management, cohabitation, paying taxes, working exclusively from home, and a few other things that had previously been foreign to me. I've managed to take advantage of having another body in the house by polishing my cooking skills, preparing at least four meals from scratch per week.  My darling other half happens to be of a different ethnic persuasion, so I've taken it upon myself to learn the culinary aspects of his homeland, which has not only yielded very delicious results but has turned into nothing short of an obsession.  You may have noticed. (And, even though we technically began cohabitating in late 2007, I can, with total difinitiveness, say that I found any and everything I could ever want in a partner in my man, and that was made very obvious to me this year.  The one who'd lay his life down for you without hesitation, the one who changed his entire life just to be with you, that's the only one worth keeping.)

I've also become pretty obsessive about reducing the amount of plastic that gets brought in and thrown away in this house, which brings me to this year's very non-traditional annual recap:

Giving Plastic the Finger in 2008

  • I said goodbye to disposable plastic baggies and vowed to never buy another.  The freezer bags that I do have will continue to be washed and reused, since they hold up amazingly well.  Refrigerator food storage from now on is recycled baggies, glass Pyrex containers (plastic lids, I know, but you have these things forever) and aluminum foil (which gets recycled after use).  My next purchase is the Bag-E-Wash, which fits in the dishwasher so I don't have to keep cleaning the bags by hand.
  • Adios plastic handle shopping bags.  They love to give you at least one of these for every single product purchased at the Mexican mercados.  It drives me insane, so I've stopped being polite about it and started just stuffing my items in my handbag, or asking them to please keep their bags for the next person.  I still kind of get a funny look when I bring in my stylish little canvas shopping bag for larger purchases, but I think the ladies are getting used to it.
  • Reusable grocery bags rock, especially when the proceeds of which go to a good cause.  I bought my polyfiber bags at Petco during an animal welfare drive, and 100% of the proceeds went to the cause.  They're larger and thicker than most, with an extra long handle for over-the-shoulder hauling.
  • My set of three cotton produce bags has recently been reduced to two (due to The Mexican accidentally leaving one at Cub Foods) but I was planning on buying another set, anyway.  A great alternative to the plastic roll bags at the store for obvious reasons, but I've found that if you dampen these bags slightly when you put your groceries away, the produce keeps fresher longer.  These bags are also awesome for buying bulk foods, which are almost always cheaper, too.
  • The City of Minneapolis actually recycles very little plastic (just bottles) and you have to guiltily toss everything else in the regular trash.  Good thing the Eastside Food Co-op on Central Avenue in Northeast started a plastics recycling program.  They take everything from #1 to #6, as long as it's not foam and it's not dirty.  Clamshell to-go containers, blue mushroom cartons, yogurt and sour cream tubs, egg and herb cartons, you name it.  Thursdays 3:30pm-7:30pm, Saturdays 10:00am-2:00pm.
  • Bag To Nature trash bags are certified compostable (by Canada, anyway) and work just as well as conventional plastic bags.  They are slightly more expensive, but I'm recycling so much plastic and composting so much food waste now that I use only one trash bag every 3 weeks.
  • I don't know why it took me so long to start buying Preserve toothbrushes, but I sure feel a lot better now that I do.  Not only made from recycled plastic, but recyclable themselves; just send your used Preserves back in a postage-paid envelope when you're done.  My next set of razors will be from Preserve, as well, since the handles are #5 recyclable plastic.  You can buy Preserve products at Whole Foods, The Wedge, and the local co-ops.
  • My first introduction to LUSH cosmetics was a handful of hyper-piquant, super chunky bath products that I didn't really care for.  But this was a few years ago, before the LUSH boutique opened at Eden Prairie Center or the full-size store at Mall of America.  Now that I've had a chance to sniff, touch, test and taste all of the LUSH line, Ive found some great products that I really love (namely the Fever Massage Bar, a scent clone of a $30 lotion I'd been buying at Sephora).  Most LUSH products come package-free, save a little yellow paper bag or reusable metal tins.
  • Bar soap, which is a no-brainer.  There's absolutely no reason I need to continually stock my shower with plastic bottles full of moisturizing cleansers (an oxymoron, anyway), exfoliant gels, shaving lotions, etc. when a bar of good soap and a washcloth accomplishes all.  We both like Trader Joe's Oatmeal Ginger Soap.
  • Lo and behold, powder dishwasher detergent works just as well as the plastic-bottled liquid stuff, and it comes in a fully recyclable paperboard box.  I buy all-natural Ecover, which even forgoes the metal pour spout (which you would have to tear out for recycling) for a handy one fashioned from paperboard.
  • I stopped buying the gallon bottles of drinking water (which I'd been recycling) and picked up a three-gallon refillable jug with pour spout from Rainbow Foods.  They only sell one-gallon refillables at Cub, so I made the extra trip to pick up the much more convenient larger size.  I know I'm supposed to drink tap water to save the planet, but if you tasted my tap water, you'd understand.
  • Consciously choosing products that have little or no plastic packaging has been easier than I thought it would be.  Peanut butter, maple syrup, spices, soft drinks and condiments all have glass-bottle options, and they're almost always the higher-quality choice, too.
Buggering Off Plastic in 2009

A couple things I admittedly haven't come around to doing yet, although I have no excuse.
  • Restore/Refill containers for laundry soap, fabric softener and dish soap.  I always see these at Whole Foods and feel guilty buying the bottled stuff.  I'm almost at the end of my jug of laundry soap, though, so I'll be turning over a new leaf on my next trip.
  • My PurOlogy shampoo and conditioner will be tough to give up, if I can even do it.  Maybe Sarah can figure out some sort of refill program?  
  • I undoubtedly picked up my two-brick-a-week cheese habit from my dad, and it's not going anywhere anytime soon.  But everything I buy comes shrink-wrapped in plastic, which is wholly unnecessary.  I know people bring their own containers to the deli or request their cheese be wrapped in paper, and I need to start doing that, too.
That's all I can think of for now.  I'll probably end up adding on to both lists over the next couple of days, though, as more things pop into mind.  Significantly reducing the amount of plastic consumed was actually much easier than I thought it would be. 

Once everyone gets warmed up to the idea of a less plastic lifestyle, we'll start buying much less, which means much less will be manufactured.  Plastic garbage already outnumbers plankton in a certain part of the ocean by 6 to 1.  How shocking is that?  It also kills thousands of animals each year because they accidentally ingest it, mistaking it for food.  Disposable pens, cigarette lighters, bottle caps, plastic bags and countless pieces of packaging, toys and miscellaneous parts are all culprits.  And the plastic byproducts from the manufacturing of these items are just as plentiful, millions of tiny toxic beebees floating around in our oceans.

So how's about it, guys?  If you're not already on board, what do you think about significantly reducing your use of plastic, even making it a major New Year's resolution?

December 31, 2008 in Current Affairs, Enticing Links, Food Miscellany, Minneapolis Miscellany, Science, Shopping: Trends & Lucky Finds | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)

More Local Holiday Shopping Options, Easy Ways to Give

I meant to post this along with yesterday's local fashion tidbits, but I'm coming down with something and I have head cloudiness so I forgot.  While I chew gan mao ling and routinely neti pot my nose (or give myself face enemas as my friend Troy likes to call it), please consider these local shopping events this weekend:

Thursday, December 4th (that's tomorrow) 6:00pm-9:00pm: The Johnson Street Merchants Holiday Shopping Open House.  Enjoy treats, giveaways and discounts from some of your favorite Northeast shops, like Crafty Planet, Rewind, Dabble and Audubon Coffee.

Friday, December 5th 3:00pm-8:00pm & Saturday, December 6th 9:00am-5:00pm: The third annual No Coast Craft-o-Rama at Midtown Global Market.  One-of-a-kind gifts from local crafters.  I've gone the previous two years and there's always a lot of really cute stuff.

If you're not feeling any kind of consumerism this holiday season, consider making donations to local charities.  Really, if you think you're feeling the pinch of the current economy, try being homeless or hungry.

An easy way to donate to our local Animal Humane Society is by rounding up any unwanted media for their All Books Great and Small Book Sale coming up in February.  Bring your hardcover and paperback books, as well as CDs, DVDs and VHS tapes to any of the 5 AHS locations now through January 23rd.  The sale will be held at both the Golden Valley and Woodbury locations February 5th through February 8th.  Details are here.  Of course, the AHS also takes cash donations, and you can browse their wish list to see if you've got anything else lying around the house that the shelters really need.

Minnesota Viking Bernard Berrian is matching every dollar you donate to Second Harvest Heartland hunger relief nonprofit until December 22nd, up to $5,000.  Minneapolis Metblogger David is upping the ante by donating $1 for every comment left on this post to the Bernard Berrian Challenge.  Every one dollar donated to Second Harvest allows them to distribute $9 worth of food.

December 03, 2008 in Current Affairs, Enticing Links, Minneapolis Miscellany, Shopping: Trends & Lucky Finds | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Election Day Freebies

Because you deserve to be rewarded for the effort.  Don't forget to grab your "I Voted" sticker, or no booty for you.

The straight-up freebies:

- The usual Ben & Jerry's free scoop of ice cream.  Available between 5:00pm and 8:00pm.  Local locations include Stadium Village, Calhoun Commons, Southdale Mall and Eden Prairie Center.

- Starbucks Coffee's free large coffee, as I'm sure you've noticed from the TV commercials by now.  (And ohmygod, is anyone else relieved that we don't have to see any more of this TV campaigning after tomorrow?  Sheesh.)

- Free pint of Schell's beer at The Nomad World Pub.

- Free drink (presumably of the bar's choosing) at the 508 Bar & Restaurant.

- Free cookie at Wilde Roast Cafe.

The pay-for-something-get-something freebies:

- 2-4-1 pints from noon to close (2:00am) at The Herkimer.

- $10 off any entree at The Melting Pot.

Just about every bar is hosting an election party this year, complete with drink and or food specials.  If you're not sure where to go, this vita.mn thread is a good place to start, with information on parties and specials at Bryant-Lake Bowl, Brit's Pub, Chambers Red, White & F**King Blue Bar, The Independent and a handful of other local hot spots.

November 03, 2008 in Current Affairs, Drinking, Food and Drink, Minneapolis Miscellany, Music, Movies, and Dining Out | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Matt Taibbi for Rolling Stone

Here's what Sarah Palin represents: being a fat fucking pig who pins "Country First" buttons on his man titties and chants "U-S-A! U-S-A!" at the top of his lungs while his kids live off credit cards and Saudis buy up all the mortgages in Kansas.

The truly disgusting thing about Sarah Palin isn't that she's totally unqualified, or a religious zealot, or married to a secessionist, or unable to educate her own daughter about sex, or a fake conservative who raised taxes and horked up earmark millions every chance she got. No, the most disgusting thing about her is what she says about us: that you can ram us in the ass for eight solid years, and we'll not only thank you for your trouble, we'll sign you up for eight more years, if only you promise to stroke us in the right spot for a few hours around election time.

October 06, 2008 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Protesting, Rioting, Blogging: The RNC

I have not set foot in St. Paul--nor have I ventured into downtown Minneapolis since Saturday night when Cristina and I went to Barrio, the details of which are forthcoming--and I don't plan to until this RNC crap is all over.  Actually, even then I probably won't be over there for a while because, well, it's St. Paul.

I have a lot of media and media-loving friends, though, and they've all been over there.  Naturally, you have Chuck with The Uptake, then Coco was down there catching some riot cops on camera and of course Steve, my favorite local writer, journalistic and otherwise, is all over the convention.

Aaron also experienced the RNC protest movement and all its glory, writing about it in a slightly disturbing blog post.  One that made me think twice about my previous belief that, if the cops weren't walking around in preemptive riot gear and spinning their batons, the protesters wouldn't be acting so insolently.  But now I don't know; these protesters seem, as Aaron calls them, "fairly unorganized" without any agreement on their goals.  And what's with the senseless destruction of personal property?  Smashing car mirrors, throwing bricks through retail buildings.  What a bunch of dicks.

But then again, these people are angry for all the right reasons.  Hell, I'm angry.  So angry my eyes well up when I think about soldiers being deployed and stop-lossed, unlawfully detained prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, and the fact that the Administration has somehow convinced Americans that undocumented Mexicans are not only a recent phenomenon, but are somehow a severe threat to our economy.  ($340 million dollars a day spent on combat efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan sounds like a threat to our economy, if you ask me.)

So I get it, I get feeling so angry that you can't even contain it, that you have rage inside of you.  But I also think the anger might be a little misdirected.  Rich seems to share my opinion here in that protesting and basically rioting in the streets of St. Paul with not much of an audience is just sensationalist overkill.  Yes, we have the bloggers, dutifully posting to YouTube and Flickr, but every time I turn on CNN or any other news source watched by the majority of Americans, they're talking about Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston.

September 03, 2008 in Current Affairs, Enticing Links, Minneapolis Miscellany, Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Getting Huffy on a Sunday Afternoon

Agreed, not the best way to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon, but I've been thinking about the Guantánamo Bay detainees a lot lately so I decided to read up and see if any of them have been charged with a crime since the last time I looked into it. 

Just two men have been charged and convicted of "providing material support to terrorism."  An estimated 270 men, some of them children at the time of their arrest in 2001, are still falsely imprisoned by our government and forced to live in horribly distressing conditions:

"Mohammad El Gharani, a young Chadian who was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, was reportedly arrested at a mosque in Karachi, Pakistan, when he was only 15 years old and brought to Guantánamo in early 2002. He was wrongly classified as 25 and held as an adult. (He is now 21.) For the past two years, he has been held in two of Guantánamo's most restrictive high-security camps.  
 
Gharani's lawyers say he has tried to commit suicide at least seven times. He has slit his wrist, run repeatedly headfirst into the sides of his cell, and tried to hang himself. On several occasions, he has been put on suicide watch in the mental health unit, given the green suicide smock, and placed in a single cell with no other items other than toilet paper. Each time, he has been moved out of the suicide unit and back into high-security detention.  
 
Often subject to punishment for reported disciplinary problems, El Gharani says he is often left with nothing in his cell other than a mat for sleeping, a Koran and toilet paper. He says that at times even some of the basic items that all detainees are reportedly allowed at all times – including a finger toothbrush and small bar of soap – have been taken away.  
 
He has never been provided any educational or additional recreation opportunities in accordance with his juvenile status at the time of capture. He has never been allowed to speak with – let alone see – any of his family members during his more than six years in U.S. custody. Like the majority of detainees at Guantánamo, he has not been charged with any crime."

The U.S. offered bounties to countries like Pakistan in exchange for individuals suspected to be terrorists.  How stupid are we to just believe that these people weren't arbitrarily herded together and sold to the U.S. for a tidy sum?  Some of the detainees have been "approved to leave" by the U.S., yet no means to actually leave the detention camp has been made available to them and they are not able to contact their families.

Where the hell are we living?  What country is this?

I've never been in support of federally granted reparations for Native Americans or ancestors of slaves, but what the hell else are we going to do for these men when they are finally released back to their homelands and to their families?  Let's say that the majority of these men held no ill will towards the United States at the time of their detention.  Well what about now?  Way to go, U.S.A.


Profile of Mohammed El Gharani at Human Rights Watch

Guantánamo Bay at Human Rights Watch

August 31, 2008 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Happy Loving Day

Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967), was a landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924", unconstitutional, thereby overturning Pace v. Alabama (1883) and ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.

Today marks 41 years that whites and non-whites have been able to legally marry each other in this country.  Plaintiffs Richard (white) and Mildred (black) Loving faced a prison sentence for residing in Virginia, wedding in D.C., then returning to Virginia as a mixed race married couple.  The ACLU and several churches stood up behind the Lovings as they fought and won a monumental case that ended Virginia's Racial Integrity Act and eventually legalized mixed race marriages in all of the United States. 

The Supreme Court ruled that "marriage is one of the 'basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law."

Richard Loving died in a car accident in 1975 and Mildred Loving died of pneumonia just last month.

I try not to get too preachy around here (especially twice in one week- whoa) but doesn't it seem ridiculous that only 41 years ago it was illegal for a white person and a non-white person to get married?  And how ridiculous will it sound 41 years from now to remember when this country's government denied this very civil right to same sex couples?  I mean Goddamn, people.

LovingDay.org

June 12, 2008 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)

Postville

I came across this article in Time Magazine yesterday about the immigration raid in Postville, Iowa.  Shockingly, this was the first I'd heard of it.  Why hasn't this been continuing front page news across the country, especially up here in Minnesota?

One of the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plants was raided there last month and, counts vary, but it sounds like about 400 immigrant workers--Guatemalans, Mexicans, Ukranians and Israelis--have been detained by ICE.  The total population of Postville is just over 2000, and now this poor little town is falling apart.  They are basically in a state of disaster relief since nearly a quarter of the residents have been removed.  Children without parents, restaurants and retailers without customers, a huge plant currently shut down.  It will take months even years for the economy of Postville to return to normal, and even then you have loved ones separated from each other by irreparably torn familial bonds.

Regardless of how you feel about immigration issues, you can still look at Postville as a perfect small-scale example of what would happen to the U.S. economy if the ICE stopped making examples of large factories in little towns and started raiding large factories in large cities.  I'm of the mindset that the ICE knows exactly how this economy would react if they were to remove 20% of our country's population, hence they continue to focus on small towns where the greater economy isn't as affected.

Complete, updated Postville coverage at DesMoinesRegister.com.

June 11, 2008 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

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