March 2010

Organic

I work in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the last bastion of aging hippies who still worship the same Nature that has turned them into scrawny scarecrows.

On occasion, I will go out during my lunch hour for a brisk walk and a quick tour of the Theme Park that is Cambridge.

Today, I walked up to the Whole Foods store to pick up some spinach pasta. For some reason the big supermarkets have stopped carrying it in their stores, so I am left with the Whole Foods option as a supplier. It is a fun trip and a blast from the past.

I took a nice walk up to the Whole Foods store and found the usual shelves full of "Cage Free Eggs" and "Organic Chicken Broth" (in a box) and Carob Chips (remember that stuff?) and "Organic Valley Whatnot". The best thing I found, though, was a bottle of stuff to wash off your vegetables. Here is the label that was on the (plastic) container:

32 Fl. Oz. for $7.99

My question is: Why do I need to buy this stuff in a store where everything is Organically Grown?

Trash Bags

Speaking of getting older and still being able to learn new things, I just figured out something new.

I used to struggle with the kitchen trash bags trying to figure out which end opened. I would pull one out of the box and then turn it end for end a dozen times trying to figure out which end had the opening. It was a very frustrating deal. But, the answer finally dawned on me in the supermarket as I pulled a produce bag off of a roll.

When you pull out a bag, the end that opens is the end that you pulled the bag out with. Its that simple. It works the same way at the supermarket with those little bags that you put the fruit and vegetables in. After you pull the bag off the roll, just keep holding on to the end that you pulled on, and that is the end with the opening.

Whoda guessed?

I bet those smart trash bag people planned that all along. Go figure.

Twitter Revolution

I was reading online recently an article that said that email is dead. It is too slow. People now use twitter for instant connectivity. Everyone is instantly tied together via their miniaturized computing devices regardless of their location in the physical world.

So these Twits or Tweets or whatever they call themselves sit on the trains and buses (and in their cars, unfortunately) silently tweeting away, trying to keep up with all the other frenetic people tied into the same electronic web.

But here is the real power of the technology. The key is in the word "silently". Whereas these same Twits.... er Tweets.... used to yammer on and on with their cell phones, disturbing the entire landscape, they now sit in a catatonic stare, their overdeveloped thumbs flying. The click click click of the chicklet keyboards can barely be heard over the soft rumble of the iPod headphones sitting next to you.

The silence is marvelous.

Yay.