To some, these recommendations may be new or interesting information. To others, it will seem like common sense. Like suggesting one should bathe frequently and floss often. (There are some people I know who actually need those little pearls of wisdom on personal hygiene.)
Here are some fabulous options if you haven’t thought of them already:
1) Cut your own tree. Nothing beats a local Christmas tree. We buy one every year at the Jones Family Farm in Shelton on the second Saturday in December. We’ve been doing that for almost the last ten years—ever since I was pregnant with my first child, who was nearly two weeks overdue, and I thought the hike up the hill would induce labor. (It didn’t.) And don’t forget to recycle. A fake tree can’t be recycled and is, frankly, just an environmental nightmare. But a live tree can be repurposed as mulch or even a handy homemade bird feeder. (A little peanut butter and bird seed go along way.) And if you’re lucky enough to live out west, try CarbonSync.com. They are a Canadian company that will “rent” you a potted Douglas Fir Christmas tree (up to 6 feet). They pick it up when the holiday is over and replant it. Et voilà. Christmas accomplished.

For Worst Perfomance by a Recycling Committee
by Elizabeth G. Howard
So I live in Stratford, a smallish town of 50,000, here in our fair state, New England. Since I am not from this part of the country, I have discovered a curious quirk of the New English people -- they take political landscaping to an entirely different level than anywhere else I have ever lived.
In Connecticut there is no real county government, and the State government is mostly ignored. Instead, there are 169 “municipalities” that all have their own way of doing things. Actually, that is putting it lightly. Town governments in Connecticut are more like rivals on "Survivor", where the shared dialect across townline is usually "F--- you! We're the REAL Daughters of the Revolution and we're preserving our individual, municipal rights, even if we have to use canning jars and vinegar!"
For example, in the case of road maintenance, for example, the municipalities, in total, have 17,115 road miles that they are required to maintain… 4.5 times the number that the State maintains. As a result, the sheer cost of road maintenance (hmmm, every town has their own rules, storage sheds, equipment, crews, etc.) is enormous.
As far as I can see, the only thing consistent across the municipalities is enforced by the State law requiring that a very bored looking police officer be on every roadwork site, either sitting in his squad car reading a Harlequin Romance, or chatting with one or more of the otherwise-idle workers about the imminent threat of terrorism in Haddam Neck.
So, fast forward to this week, when I started to research the RECYCLING PROGRAM in Stratford...
Continue reading "For Worst Perfomance by a Recycling Committee" »
Posted at 12:47 PM in At Home, Citizen Action, Commentary, Government, Quandries, Recycling & Reuse, Urban Planning | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: local government, recycling, Stratford CT, urban planning