March, 2009

So your kids want to go to the circus. The big circus, the real circus, the one being advertised all over the subway with clowns and tigers and such. Fair enough. But unlike your 7 year-old, you read that Times article from a few years back about how man's encroachment on their feeding grounds is driving elephants to what can only be described as belligerent, violent behavior against people, rhinos, and other elephants. Makes you wonder how they'd respond to being chained, transported, and paraded in front of thousands of loud, smelly people with flash cameras every day. Hmmm.

Poetry readings can be risky.

you might
get a poet
who reads
their work
in small,
albeit pretentious
blocks of
words, in a
faraway
voice...

People have been trying to get the New York State government to include plastic water bottles in our Bottle Bill, the legislation that decides which containers have deposits and which don't, for years. The Legislature and Governor have finally agreed to make that Poland Spring bottle in your bag refundable, making it more likely to be recycled. But rumor has it that the Senate is backing away from the deal. That's where you come in.