Corn: It's What's For Dinner

I both cannot wait -- yet am scared to death -- to see this documentary.



From the movie, quoted in Roger Ebert's review: "Corn, in fact, is an ingredient in 80 percent of supermarket products, including batteries and Splenda. Processing concentrates it. You couldn't eat enough corn kernels in a day to equal the number of calories in a bag of corn chips."

This is what America is all about right? Little business grows into big business. Bigger, faster, cheaper, better. But at what cost? In a nation that idolizes the thin yet is overrun with obesity, why do we make it so hard for the average family to buy good, healthy food without going broke?

More of Ebert's review here, and Ann Hornaday's review here. I don't think I'll be getting popcorn at this movie.

Dim all the lights sweet darlin'

Come now, I know you can find something to do with the lights off for an hour next Saturday night...

Go here for more info.

Whose bright idea was this anyway?

{Light bulbs, originally uploaded by Alastair Bird.}

I am not a fan of the eco-correct, mercury-filled, last-forever compact florescent light bulbs (CFLs). I have spent way too much time under their flickering beam in corporate America to want to live with them at home as well. Plus I took all that time and effort finding just the right paint colors for my walls; if I wanted puce walls I would have painted puce walls.

So I buck the trend and stocked up on some soon-to-be-outlawed 4-packs of the Reveal incandescent light bulbs at the Home Desperate tonight after work. In exchange for their low prices I endured the wrath of some CFL eco-freak who acted like I was beheading a kitten. I told her I was allergic to CFLs but I don't think she believed me.

For the record I do lead a pretty green life otherwise - recycle, reuse, walk to work, etc. But do I have to bathe my home in icky green light to be green?

New bird on the block No. 8

{Luella Bartley "Robin" shirt for Tonic}

Now here is a birdie who looks good and does good too. Do-good e-tailer TONIC has teamed up with British designer Luella Bartley to launch a limited-edition line of organic tees, each of which benefit a different global cause. When walking to school, the last thing a kid needs to worry about is his or her feet. Along with Friends of Paradis des Indiens, TONIC is helping provide shoes to 2,500 children in Haiti to help them get to school and learn academic subjects and skills such as carpentry, sewing, weaving, agriculture and reforestation. Each t-shirt is an organic cotton and bamboo fiber 70/30 blend and provides 1 pair of shoes to a child in Abricots, Haiti.