Bring on the Chemicals

Over the last year or two, in an effort to do our part to stem the tide of pollution and climate change, we've tried to make a move in our household toward reducing the number of chemicals in our lives and home. We've transitioned to mostly all natural cleaning products (did you know you can mop wood floors with vinegar? Or that vinegar and baking soda are an incredibly effective drain cleaner?), all natural, non-animal tested toiletries, biodegradable detergents for dishes and laundry, and home remedies for pesky things like fruit flies (we still keep some very poisonous, very aerosol chemical around to deal with the gargantuan centipedes we sometimes find in our basement apartment....more on that later).

But recently, I've come to an unfortunate but obvious conclusion: chemicals were added to stuff for a reason....because they make things better! My desire to go "all-natural" has unfortunately left me with oily hair, a dirty floor, a greasy stove-top, and streaky dishes.

I know there are scientists out there working day and night to clone things like sheep (which already look alike.) and study other obscure and random stuff. Don't you think at least a few of them could take some time out to develop a quality shampoo made from bamboo or something?

Best Books

A friend just sent me the following link to a list of the best books of the last decade (http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-best-books-of-the-00s,35774/1/) I'd read 10 of them, and reading through it gave me some great new ideas about a few things to add to my "list." But it also motivated me to develop by own list of literary bests. So here goes, my list of the best books ever:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
And the Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Ann Fadiman
The Bretheren: Inside the Supreme Court by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong
Love Poems from God by Daniel Ladinsky
Iron and Silk by Mark Salzman
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Brothers Karamazov by Fydor Dostoevsky
Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam
Lamb by Christopher Moore
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Which ones would you add to the list?

In the Dog House

We've been in the market for a new dog house for the Love-it-or-leav-itt hound. What do you all think of this?

Fabulous Foliage

When I first moved to Boston (and only slightly less often now that I've been indoctrinated into the culture here), I often wondered why the HELL the pilgrims ever settled here. If I had laid eyes on this frozen hell hole after 3 months on a boat, I would have taken a big fat left and headed for the warmer waters of Florida. I've never understood why people would want to live here. If asked, natives will talk about the beauty of the landscape or the wonderful fall foliage. But I've never agreed. We have deciduous trees in other parts of the country too, I'd say.

That was until this year. We had some incredibly magical foliage this year that almost made me glad to live in New England. Everywhere I turned it seemed this tree or that was absolutely exploding with color. Orange, red, yellow, all three....my drives to and from work were a treat for the eyes for almost two months.

And seeing the foliage always reminds me about the true limitations of the human knowledge. Though we can splice the atom, we still don't know why and how the leaves change color. To me, there is something magical about that.

Here are just a few shots from our neighborhood. These were taken after the more intense colors had past, but are still wonderful:



Even the ivy on many of the buildings seemed to be ablaze in color:

Ad Fad

I've come to the conclusion that pharmaceutical advertising is taking over the world (or maybe I'm just watching a subset of shows geared toward people in their 60s and 70s). But I actually think this is okay, because I find most pharmaceutical adds incredibly entertaining. I especially appreciate the one in which the disclosed side effects are worse than the actual disease such as one I just saw for an anti-depressent: May cause weight gain, loss of sexual drive, fatigue and suicidal thoughts. (This sounds like the medicine might actually cause depression....)

I'm also amazed by the ones with bizarre requirements such as one I recently heard for a kidney medication: Alert your doctor if you have an allergic reaction to bird products such as eggs, meat or feathers or if you have numbness in your leg.

But the BEST ones are the completely vague ones, the ones in which it is impossible to determine what ailment the drug addresses. They usually go something like this: Do you ever feel tired? (Flash image of an attractive young person in a superbly decorated house rubbing forehead das if tired.) Do you ever feel sick? (Flash to image of an equally attractive young person of a different gender and, even better, a minority sitting at their desk at a white collar job pretending to cough.) Do you ever have trouble deciding what to eat for dinner? (Flash to an image of an elderly woman looking into the refrigerator in despair.) Well you don't every have to feel these things again! Try Pharmaceutica and be free! (But what exactly is it for??!??!)

I often wonder what the effect of these ads is. Do people really go to their doctor demanding the little purple pill or are we simply creating a generation of hypochondriacs who wander the world believing they have high blood pressure, sleep apnea and restless less syndrome?