Archive for July, 2009

Pity New Jersey.  The state has an identity crisis, overshadowed by New York.  It’s the rear end of constant jokes.  Television gave it plenty of exposure—thanks to The Sopranos.  Its politicians always get caught up in corruption scandals, including the one last week that even ensnared some rabbis!  But there’s more to Jersey than the jokes.  There is wonderful countryside, nice beaches, and small towns that take you back in time.  And thanks to some maneuvering by its utilities regulatory body, the state will soon be a leader in solar power generation, second only to California.

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Starting today, we will have a There’s a Place! segment, featuring reviews of restaurants and cafés that are—or are working on—using organic or local ingredients, as well as incorporating sustainable business practices.

Recently I spent the day with Ara as he had knee surgery and was unable to drive.  Dehydrated, hungry, and groggy, he suggested M Café de Chaya, a macrobiotic café on LA’s trendy Melrose Avenue. (more...)

Today a UK study questioning the nutritional value of organic food made the newswires, and of course, sparked debate on the radio waves.  The study involved parsing through 50 years of research papers, zoomed in on 162 papers that compared the nutritional value of organic and conventional foods, and concluded, “the Bush administration had it right all along!” (more...)

Let’s face it:  95% of us have at least one pair of Crocs or at one point we were dying to have a pair.  The other 5% of us are liars.

Crocs were all the rage just a few years ago.  Once relegated to boaters, professionals like nurses who were on their feet all day, and Japanese business school students, Crocs became the must-have of the season!  Some say Britney Spears sparked the madness, but in any event, for $30, most of us could afford this fabulously foamy accessory. (more...)

I recently made a quick trip to Silicon Valley to say goodbye to a very special man in my life, Robert Gomez.  Mr. Gomez was a music teacher for almost 40 years, and most of his career was spent at Cupertino High School.  He was a man of family, community, and of course, music.

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I just returned from a quick trip to the Bay Area, and on Friday morning, as my mother was driving me down I-280 from the CA-85 interchange, a gateway to Cupertino, I suddenly saw a stunning white cable bridge spanning the highway.  It reminded me of similar bridges I’ve seen around the world, from Buenos Aires to Yosu, Korea.  It was such a nice change from the bland concrete walkways you see almost everywhere else.  I was smitten. (more...)

Say “green” or “environment” and we immediately thinking about solar, cute harp seals, big oil, activists, or that bio-fueled Mercedes.  But one way I think about the environment is aesthetics:  yes, humans can have an awful effect on our land, water, and air . . . but also on our surroundings.  I blanch at the awful strip malls that have marred Los Angeles, I hated the Soviet-style apartment buildings in Korea, and when I was a kid, I couldn’t believe they painted my mother’s high school in Fallon, Nevada, bright lime green. (more...)

My dear friend in Ottawa announced several weeks back—on Facebook—that she had bought a dual flush toilet.  I remember seeing these all over East Asia, especially in Korea and Japan.  It makes sense, right?  Smaller flush for #1, and well, a bigger flush.  That’s actually how I figured out the Chinese characters for “big” and “small.”  I’m surprised this never caught on in California, but concern over the drought, and rebates, are slowly changing how we flush. (more...)

Overall, I like Michael Bloomberg. His leadership of New York City seems solid, he is more focused on solutions than dogma, and does not seem to give a hoot what his rivals think. But I was disappointed that he has allowed his SUV’s to run idle for long periods at a time, as the Associated Press reported on Wednesday. (more...)

Last night, we continued through our DVD queue by watching Johnny Belinda, a 1948 movie for which Jane Wyman won an Academy Award.  Wyman plays a young deaf and dumb (dated movie, eh?) woman who finds a doctor that brings out her potential, only for her to be attacked by the town drunk, has a child, and becomes the village pariah and scandal.  But one of the subplots grabbed my attention:  Lew Ayers’ character, the doctor, is burning bridges in the town by not always accepting bartered goods for his services. (more...)

Three months ago I planted a garden and the results have been impressive. We’re inundated by tomatoes, which is hardly a bad thing. The yellow boys have been awesome, and of course the cherry and yellow pear tomatoes just explode in your mouth. I was worried about my eggplant, but they are so succulent that to create a dip or salad out of them would be heresy—pan-frying them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper are the way to go. (more...)

I don’t think we’ll see organic food on flights anytime soon.  Well, of course we don’t see food on flights period.  But if you’re in Northern California and happen to get sick, you may feel better about having a Kaiser Permanente card.  So say good-bye to those canned green beans and mysterious gelatin desserts! (more...)

Quick update--I had a great breakfast with a couple fellows who are in the green tech movement.  One fellow is doing a business plan for a not-quite-started algae start up.  ExxonMobil is even getting into the act. There are lots of issues with algae--it works well in the lab, but it's not quite scalable, it gets contaminated easily, and where do you find space to harbor all of these little organisms?  Plus at this rate it's very pricey--so again, scalability is the issue. Stay tuned, we'll have more discussions about this!

We had some kinks to work on, and I have a great person tidying this site up--and now you can subscribe to GreenGoPost.com.  We hope you do!

Our road to energy independence will involve small, incremental, and localized steps.  One step I’d like to see turned into leaps is for homes and businesses to create their own energy, and even contribute to their neighbors and local grid—it sounds more attractive then being captive to large utilities and the volatility of oil prices. (more...)