If you don’t read anything else in this column today, please read this one paragraph. Bottom line, there is a huge difference between Biodegradable and Compostable. They are not even a little alike.They are ‘slap you in the face’ different and I only recently understood this difference.They both sound like you are doing something great to help the environment and our wonderful Mother Earth,but only one will save us.Biodegradable simply means that the product is capable of decomposing at some point, but it could take hundreds of years. Some biodegradable plastics take almost 1,000 years to biodegrade. Steel is technically biodegradable because it will (eventually) rust and disintegrate. See where I’m going? Compostable means it will be fully disintegrated into soil, leaving no toxicity behind, within a 12-week industrial composting process. There is a 3-month window on compostable, meaning your footprint is only 90 days long. Compost is enriched soil that is commonly used as fertilizer, helping new plants grow. Compostable is ALWAYS biodegradable, but biodegradable is rarely compostable. Only compostable items are part of the solution. Read your labels with this in mind, so you’re not tricked into believing what companies want us to believe. They try to fool us in to thinking they are doing the right thing, but making money is always their bottom line. Just think compost, dirt, Earth, when you shop. As consumers, nothing can survive unless we support it.
A Frenchwoman in her 80’s received a letter in 2015 about an order of yarn, meant for her great-grandfather who had owned a spinning mill. The letter had taken 138 years to travel six miles.
Today, I explained to a new friend that I am now setting alarms for the many things I want to remember. When I think of something I need to do at work or home, and it just happens to be midnight, I just grab my phone and set an alarm reminder for the next day. I was notorious for forgetting to make out the delivery checks for the carriers, so every Wednesday my alarm continues to say, “Don’t forget carrier checks.” The person that I was talking to said that their theory is, “if you lose your keys, that’s no problem. If you can’t remember what they’re for, then you’re in trouble.” So far, so good. I’m looking out my office window and see a car that belongs to me. I know I’m supposed to drive it home this evening and in order to do that, I’ll need the keys that are now sticking out of my office door lock. We’re good!
My taste in music ranges from “you need to listen to this,” to “I know, please don’t judge me.” Facebook
Most of the parents charged in the college admissions scandal were accused of paying to get one child into college, a few had two children. But Douglas Hodge, who pleaded guilty (this is important), had paid bribes ($850,000 total) for four of his children and was in the process of attempting to do so with a fifth child. He has seven children in all. Prosecutors recommended two years in prison, but he received only nine months because of his record of philanthropy and other good works (more than $30 million to causes including charter schools in California and an orphanage in Cambodia). Poor Lori Mclaughlin.
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have just said faster horses. Henry Ford
Today I hit my head on the bathroom wall. I happen to be wearing a below the knees, longer sweater that’s split up the sides. When you go to the bathroom you have to flip the back-middle section up as you sit down so it doesn’t fall into the potty – just imagine you’re going to the bathroom wearing a tux with tails. So, when I flipped up the sweater, I threw my body forward and whack, I hit the top of my head on the wall. It’s time to go home.
Did you see the American flags in the downtown LJ medians that were set out for President’s Day? They were quite majestic. Thank you, Brazosport Breakfast Lions Club. You can help support them. 😊
RECENT BIRTHDAYS: TV journalist Roger Mudd is 92. TV personality Hugh Downs is 99. Country music artist Razzy Bailey is 81. Jazz pop singer actress Peggy King is 90. Discovered by Mitch Miller after he heard her radio jingle for Hunt’s Tomato Sauce.Actor LeVar Burton is 63. Young Kunta Kinte in the 1977 ABC television miniseries Roots.Host of the long-running PBS children’s series Reading Rainbow, and Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Actor William Katt is 69. He was Tommy Ross, the ill-fated prom date of Carrie White in the film version of Carrie.Actor rapper Ice-T is 62. Actor Jeremy Bulloch is 75. Best known for the role of the bounty hunter Boba Fett in the original Star Wars trilogy. Actress Lisa Loring is 62. She was Wednesday Addams on the 1964–1966 sitcom The Addams Family.Actress Mia Farrow is 75.Actor Andrew Prine is 84. He was so good looking.
Author Alice Walker is 76. She wrote The Color Purple. The 1985 movie was directed by Steven Spielberg with Quincy Jones composing the score. There will be a nationwide screening for one day only on February 23, just in case you never saw it, or you would like to see it again. Danny Glover, Oprah Winfrey, and Whoopi Goldberg at their best.
The symphony is having so much fun this year. Interaction – the Sequel on Feb. 29th.Wizards of Music, Wizards of Magic on April 18th. Nunsense shows from February 21st– March 1st. The Center for the Arts and Sciences. 979-265-7731.The Texas Tenors are at The Clarion February 22nd. They were here ten years ago and were fantastic. What’s not to like about three good-looking tenors singing to you. Multi-Grammy winning ensemble, The King’s Singers will show us a great time on February 25th.They have entertained at Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House, NY’s Carnegie Hall and all places in-between. Again, I say, if you’re bored, it’s your own fault. There is plenty to do here that’s free or the price of a ticket.
The return of Boeing’s 737 Max has been delayed again and regulators are not expected to approve the jet to fly again until the middle of the year.
Last month was the warmest January in 141 years of climate record-keeping, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. I haven’t even covered my olive tree once this winter. My garden is full of herbs, vegetables, and flowers that normally die back in winter. Weird weather.
Did you see the beautiful moon on February 9th? The second full moon of winter was ‘once’ called the snow moon because of February’s heavy snows. Hmmm. What should we call it now? “Not even a hard freeze moon?”The super worm moon appears March 9th and according to The Farmer’s Almanac, the March full moon is called the “worm moon” because it happens around the time of year that the ground softens and worms begin to appear in the soil again, marking the beginning of spring.
Do more things that make you forget to check your phone…
In LJ, someone stole a Ford truck from Loganberry St. (I think it’s an apartment complex), then later two men drove it to a bank (which I think might be Wells Fargo) and rammed it into an ATM outside the bank, knocking the machine off its concrete mount. Wow. The truck was later found abandoned on Oyster Creek Drive. We are stepping up in the world with ATM thievery and murders on the beach.
The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles is offering a FREE digital reminder service to help you remember when it’s time to renew both your inspection and registration. www.TxDMV.gov/eReminder
The Electronic Privacy Information Center and 40 other privacy groups are calling for the U.S. government to ban use of facial-recognition technologies funded by the government. One company, Clearview AI, says that it has a database of more than 3 billion facial images taken from social sites, including Facebook and YouTube, with 600 federal and state law enforcement agencies now using the product. The app can scan the face of anybody in public and match it against a huge database of images. Hmmm. Edward Snowden has a new book, “Permanent Record,” where he warns that the power of the government’s spy technology is so vast that every web search, every location, and every digital interaction any individual makes can and will be monitored. Snowden uses ‘Frankenstein’ to describe technology that breeds unexpected dangers for its creators and unsuspecting civilians.
Thank you to Downtown Tacos for serving lunch after hours on Saturday afternoon. I breezed in because I thought they were still open. They told me to stay and asked me what I wanted to eat. I told them to surprise me because I love everything. I received a yummy plate of cheese enchiladas, rice and refried beans. Thank you, Jesse Aguilar aka Mr. Credit Card, for the chocolate covered strawberries. They were more than delicious. Thank you to Mr. Corder for the sweet valentine cards and the beautiful flowers that you brought for us. Thank you, Debra Perry, for the delicious chocolate roses and the box of smoked salmon. Oh, my gosh, we are so fortunate to have such lovely friends. Thank you, Connie. Each morning when I come in, she fixes the rat spots where I tease my hair. Someday I will learn to use a mirror. Thank you to all the people that shopped our garage sale in front of State Farm and The Source Weekly offices downtown. We will do it again soon.
This last weekend I got to play in the dirt and garden. It was a beautiful day, especially appreciated since we’ve had some pretty moody days and weeks lately. My celery is absolutely gorgeous, the dill is flowering and covered with bees, the catnip grows while you’re watching it, the rainbow swiss chard is so colorful, the cabbages and Brussel sprouts don’t have anything but big leaves, but they’ll make pretty table decorations, the peppers are blooming, the peas have big purple pods and there were still some caterpillars on the milkweed a couple of weeks ago. I cut mint to take home, only to find that I had accidently cut some stems with a chrysalis attached, so I placed it in a plant on my back porch and within days there was an empty chrysalis shell with a pretty little monarch flitting around my flower garden. I felt like a new mom. I made soup with turnips, greens, spinach, peppers, celery, onions, thyme, dill, cilantro, lemon grass and swiss chard, all from the garden, so all I had to add from the pantry was a little chicken, a big onion and some bone broth. It was delicious. I figured that that one pot of soup probably cost me $125 because I spend so much to keep up the garden, but it’s SOOOOO worth it. It’s a huge part of my mental health care. Well, that and my morning cup of coffee.
Two of the teens arrested in the deadly stabbing of the 18-year-old Barnard College student in a New York park were 13 and 14-years-old. And this week,the third and final suspect, another 14-year-old teen was arrested and is being charged as an adult with second-degree murder, first degree robbery and second-degree robbery in the fatal stabbing. Hmmm. The trio had set out that night following a man to rob, but then picked 18-year-old Tessa Majors, who fought back as they stabbed her multiple times. So sad.
A Florida man undergoing kidney dialysis three times a week is upset because the treatment facility won’t let him bring his life-size cardboard cutout of Donald Trump with him as a comfort item during his 3-and-half hour treatments. He started with a photograph, then brought a small cutout and now a life-sized Trump. The patient, Nelson Gibson, says, “It just feels like bringing something from home to make you comfortable.” “They told me it was too much and it wasn’t a rally.”
Good grief. I think I may have ‘struck a cord’ with my love letter to The Houston Chronicle about their inability to deliver my newspaper each day. Thank you much for your emails, phone calls and comments. Now I know I’m not alone on this journey…well, not only am I not alone, I’m in the middle of a parade.
