I Am LITTERally Fuming

Yesterday was Earth Day.  Founded in the 70's, I love the idea of our preserving and protecting our wonderful planet.

However today, the day after Earth Day, I was slammed with the ongoing harsh reality that the residents of the Earth are doing a really crappy job at preservation.  The educated and informed may be "concerned" about climate change and certainly many of us recycle and institute other smart conservation activities.  But aesthetically, there is a real blight on our beautiful planet called LITTER and we need to get back to basics.

I worked at the motel today.  It is a constant battle of picking up handfuls of cigarette butts, bottle caps, plastic bottles, etc. carelessly dropped on the ground.  I walked the neighbors empty lot next door and filled a waste can with trash.  The road side bushes across the street are a magnet for every drive-by "toss and run."  I drive home and see where visitors pull their car to the side of the road to picnic and enjoy our "environmentally sensitive" and beautiful Keys - and leave their trash in a pile behind.

I cannot take my daily walk without picking up someone's water or Gatorade bottle tossed in our beautiful neighborhood park.  I am astonished at the amount of litter on the roadways when I drive north to Miami.  And take a boat ride offshore to go fishing and encounter the glorious weed line - where currents create a line of seaweed ripe with bait fish attracting bigger species and then see what is trapped in the natural elements.  Unbelievable amounts of packaging waste.

I remember visiting Put-in-Bay in Lake Erie a couple summers ago and riding around the island with family in a giant golf cart.  We were behind a group of young men, probably in their early 20's and we watched as one casually tossed his beer can to the road side after he finished drinking it.  That visual stays with me.  His blatant disregard for not only the property around him, but his uncaring attitude for every human being who would have to see and be affected by his selfish act haunts me.  And angers me.

What is happening here?  Is this the way it has always been and I am just getting older and less tolerant?  Or is there a serious lack of caring about each other that is growing in our society?   If we all share this home, then I want neater roommates! 

I found these photos of Toronto's anti-littering campaign and I just love them. Perhaps shaming the culprits is the right way to go.  Or getting back to fining them - stiffly!

 

 

Lucky Goat

My dear friend Fern says that there are only 500 people in the whole world.  How else does one explain the crazy coincidences that occur with people.  Like the time the H-bomb and I were in a remote village in Thailand sampling street food, when someone he went to high school with, who dropped out to smoke Opium and live out his hippie lifestyle in Thailand probably as far back as the Vietnam era, yelled - Harry Caplan?  There are over 7 BILLION people in the world!!  And the theory of "six degrees of separation" says that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world.

This past week, my cousin and husband from New York State stopped on their way to Florida, picked up my sister in Washington DC, and road-tripped down the coast, ending in Key Largo.  Brother Tom from Ohio joined us here.  Cousin Nancy handed me a beautiful hand-made gift bag (made by her) filled with soap products from a business in a town in NY where her daughter lives called Lucky Goat.  Nancy raved about the products and we laughed at their motto "How you get dirty is your business... how you come clean is ours!"

A couple days later, on our way to Key West to play tourist, we stopped at our motel, the Sea Dell, to show the property to my sister.  My desk clerk handed me a note from a woman who said she was in the Keys in an RV with her husband and that she was a good friend of a high school friend of mine, Deb Simstad Allyn, and had stopped to say hello. Carol Ann and husband had not pulled out of the driveway yet and I raced over to say "hi".  When they got out of the RV, and we were introducing ourselves, she said to my cousin "you look familiar" and my cousin said the same.  Carol Ann said "Lucky Goat?"  And the connection was made.  Carol Ann's daughter is the founder of the Lucky Goat soap business in Skaneateles NY, is friends with my cousin's daughter, Carol Ann works there sometimes, and my cousin who lives in Cortland NY is a huge fan of the product and brought some to me.  

Now, consider there are 300 million people in the US.  Of course, not all live on the east coast, but still, here we are, presented with another "small world" story.  We marveled at the irony, made our way to Key West and guess what - we spotted the couple twice in Key West, which was bulging with tourists!

From the left: my cousin's husband Tom, my cousin Nancy, new acquaintance Carol Ann, me, my brother Tom, Carol Ann's husband and my sister Suzanne.  Have I mentioned before that I have the best family in the world?  They are loving, fun, smart, lively and just plain good people.  My cousin Nancy is my mother's twin's daughter so we have a close knit shared history.  The visit was wonderful, like every time we get together: full of stories, shared family lore, catching up, loud hooting and laughing, teasing and just plain good times.  I guess I am a lucky goat! 

Please, Browns?

In Cleveland Browns football lore, "THE DRIVE" stands out with painful clarity.  In the AFC Championship game, played at the old Browns stadium, the Browns lost when John Elway of the Denver Broncos drove the ball 98 yards in the last minute to tie the game, and then the Broncos won on a field goal in overtime. 

My husband's family had business ties with the Loews family at that time who owned a big share of CBS, and H-bomb and I were all set to see our Browns play in Super Bowl XXI in Pasadena, California.  We had the promise of tickets, we had the travel arrangements made, we were psyched!  The deflation of excitement in our family room that afternoon in January 1987 was bigger than poking a hole in a dirigible. 

We went to Superbowl XXI.  Did I care about the game?  NO!  I only wanted Elway to lose.  I don't even remember the game itself.  What I do recall was Harry's former business partner (we took he and his wife with us) telling the gate guard that he was a physician and needed to park close to the Rose Bowl stadium in case there was an emergency and he had to get out quickly.  I countered with saying he was kidding, and that didn't gain me any favor with partner Al, but it was a foreboding about his character.  Some years later it was discovered that Al had been cheating H-bomb for years in revenue and they parted ways. I also remember sitting in fantastic seats on special cushions given to every ticket holder and below us I could see OJ Simpson and his wife Nicole.  Darryl Strawberry was also seated nearby.  We all know what happened to Nicole Simpson, and Darryl Strawberry was arrested not long after for beating up his wife.  So much for celebrity gazing.  A happy memory was being in the ladies room waiting in line (even at the Super Bowl) and chatting with a Giant's player's wife who was pregnant and due to deliver any day but so excited to be at the game and thinking how down to earth and delightful she was.

But the thing that really strikes me today, the morning after the Super Bowl of 2015 is how simple the half-time show was compared to today.  It was definitely full of fun, and fireworks and such, but no where near the confusing mish mash I saw yesterday.  Muddled lyrics, the voice second to the performance and the performance definitely falling way short of the constant hysteria of lights, props and noise. Missy Elliott rocked her performance and the backup dancers were amazing.  Keep it simple if there is talent to showcase.  I still remember Bruce Springsteens performance with him sliding across the stage on his knees with microphone placed suggestively between his legs in a mocking fun way.  He looked like he was having a blast and we did watching him. 

I am still hoping for the year that takes the Cleveland Browns fans into, and then past the anxiety of the post season, and into a spot in this crazy Super Bowl scene.  That year, when it comes, will have an entertainer with class, commercials that make one howl with laughter (sorry, not the right venue for sappy, sad and stupid), and of course, we will win - forever putting our losing history behind and creating a new era of pride in Cleveland sports to match the pride we feel already for the City.  Please, Browns???