Selling Peace Bonds

While preparing my Deco Diet lecture for the Art Deco Society (what a hoot! Now everyone knows how to make Larded Grouse!), I prepared a slide about Victory Gardens and rationing. I was moved by how hard Americans worked together to win WWII, for all its fiascos (have you seen Flags of our Fathers?). God, there are so many great ideas out there about Peace - I mean, we really know what it is now (You can even get a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies at many major universities), and it's something you have to work on, it's not just the absence of war.

So, digging up all these cool War Bonds posters, I thought, what about Peace Bonds? If we're serious about ending this war, and all wars, let's have a symbol of it. Let's get actresses to get out there and sell them. Let's make sure the money goes to things that really matter - like education and health care (health care being the #1 reason workers strike and create social strife) (they picked up our garbage today but workers are still locked out), for example. There is a movement afoot to create a lasting Department of Peace to balance out the influence of the Pentagon in our government.

I played with these images—aren't they fun? Click on any of them and you can go to my Peace Bonds page to see more—or to purchase Peace Bonds!

What Happened to Fern?

My Homemade Hybrid campaign

(from my latest newsletter...)

What if I told you there was an easy and free way for car-drivers to instantly reduce their personal carbon emissions by 10-20%? Well, I'm about to. Last year (on or around Earth Day), I decided to do something. I kicked my idling habit. To my amazement, I started getting 30 more miles on every tank of gas by turning my car into a "homemade hybrid."

So, my latest obsession is spreading the word on the 10-second rule. (Read on, you may be tempted to try it yourself.) I just got an article published (yay!) at Celsias.com. If you'd like to help spread the word, you can even "hugg" the article, (which will help put it on the front page of treehugger.com, yee hah!)

I also created a website, complete with links for more information and funny, free window posters. Click the smoggy picture above to check it out. I do welcome comments on the site - even from skeptics!

Also, please join me in the National Day of Climate Action on April 14th! "Ten Seconds to Change"!

Here's to sanity, survival (and silliness, of course),

Earth-mama Kristen

p.s. please forward this to anyone you think might care!

p.p.s. the ten-second rule does not apply to vintage cars--or cars that are already hybrids!

70 Things that Remind Us of You

In honor of my dad on his 70th birthday, here are 70 things that remind us of him. Happy Birthday, daddy!

1. ‘snot
2. 10¢ whiskers
3. 1937 Tiffin St.
4. 7-11 coffee
5. agua sin hielo
6. Ballreich’s
7. barbershop music
8. beards
9. beauty queens with train wheels
10. bedside manners
11. Big Boy
12. binks
13. BNSF Diesels
14. bobbers
15. boxcars
16. Cheyenne
17. chicken feet
18. cookbooks, esp. American Woman’s
19. corn huskers
20. cruise ships
21. dancing
22. donuts
23. Dr. Daddy
24. engineer caps
25. false teeth
26. fireworks
27. Für Elise
28. goat lungs
29. gray cats with green eyes
30. Guatemala
31. health insurance
32. HMOs
33. Hoggies
34. hymnals
35. jellyfish
36. knee surgery
37. Lego trains
38. Leinenkugel’s
39. Lo, How a Rose
40. Memorial Hospital
41. model trains
42. Monty Python
43. Monty Python auf Deutsch
44. mushrooms & spores
45. nickels & plates
46. Ohio
47. otoscope
48. planting trees
49. prairie dogs
50. ratatouille
51. rattlesnakes
52. roses
53. Sauternes
54. sinkers
55. six am phone calls
56. skunk language
57. Spanish
58. Splenda packets
59. Star Trek
60. stethoscopes
61. stitches
62. tendiscular mundromes
63. The Durants
64. the mackerel in our freezer
65. the smell of corn tortillas
66. Tin Plate Junction
67. train museum
68. used cars
69. Wild Irish Roses
70. wine...wine...(not whine)...wine!