So, yes, we’re a bit behind the curve on this. But we have a Facebook page – hurrah!
It’s still under construction, but we’re hoping to have it all up and RSS’d today. So stop by and become a fan, or just friend Kai and I (AJ’s page is going up soon).
Click here to see the page.
Wow. I know Portfolio‘s “Confessions of a TARP Wife” is being lambasted all over the internet, but I could not resist posting this bit on nonsense here on Femmeiniste too. It is just.that.ridiculous.
To make a long story short, the wife of a Banking CEO has written an article discussing how she and her husband have had to cut back on their lifestyle in the wake of the collapsing economy.
Among the choice bits: they now have to fly commercial, skip opening night at the Metropolitan Opera and downsized the husband’s lavish annual birthday party.
OH, THE HORROR!
Happy Earth Day, all!
The media this week is full of information about greening your life, what we should be doing, how we can save the planet (assuming anyone can really figure that out). It’s important stuff, but Earth Day is also the perfect time to remember not just what we’re supposed to be doing, but why we’re doing it. Our home is beautiful — let’s take a few minutes to appreciate just how spectacular it is.
To that end, nobody does spectacular nature photography like the folks who shoot for National Geographic. I’ve included a few of my favorites after the jump, but it’s well worth following the link and taking a wander through the photos yourself. This is why we care.
Ladies, we’re all looking to save a few bucks during these trying times, right? I’ve made it my 2009 mission to get my finances in order, pay off my debt and get the savings flowing.
Sure it’s not my most glamorous post, but here are a few of my patented save-money-while-living-fabulously tips. They are not particularly original or revolutionary, but they work for me!
Alright, so I’m not going to be partaking in Free Ice Cream Day at Ben & Jerry’s (grumble, grumble, grumble).
I will, however, participate in this: Dunkin Donuts has declared today Iced Coffee Day, and is selling their famed (and, if I may say so, Starbucks-ass-kicking) iced coffee for 50 cents. Check out their site to find a participating location near you.
And this is a small splurge you can feel good about: 10% of each iced coffee (so, five cents) is donated to Home For Our Troops, which builds and/or adapts homes for handicapped veterans.
Enjoy!
Today is one of the best days of the year: Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s!! (Yeah, that’s double exclamation point worthy.)
So head over to their site to find to find a location near your, then head on over between noon and 8pm today to get your free scoop of Chunky Monkey, Phish Food, Cherry Garcia, or any other flavor.
Being as Earth Day is later this week, I thought I’d talk about green shopping. Yes, I’m aware of the irony. How are we talking about green shopping when the greenest thing we could possibly do would be to not shop? Reduce, reuse, recycle, emphasis on the reduce. No matter how green a product may be or how diligently you recycle, nothing can beat not buying it in the first place for minimizing your impact. Realistically, though, our consumer lifestyles are not going to screech to a halt any time soon, and no matter how conscientious you are about reducing, periodically you’re going to need some new lipstick or replacement clothing.
That being the case, I am all for supporting companies who are trying to reduce their environmental impact. Sure, it’s not no-impact, but every little bit helps. Voting with your wallet may be a cliche, but it works. Shouldn’t every company be doing this? So, in honor of Earth Day, here are a few places to hook you up with eco-conscious goods to fuel your green lifestyle.
A gem for polyglots from the May issue of Wired: Perhaps you were aware that Google is available in various international versions for use by speakers of languages other than English? As it turns out, Google is also available in special versions for speakers of Klingon and Pig Latin. (They are nothing if not inclusive.) Sadly, Google’s language tools do not offer translation assistance for Klingon or Pig Latin, so you Klingon speakers are on your own in reading pages written in English.
The curious and/or bored may find it worthwhile to go spend a few minutes putzing around in the “preferences” section, where you can select the interface language. Here you can choose to interface with Google not only in the obvious language options like French and Spanish and the choice options above, but also in widely utilized languages like Esperanto, Hacker, and Bork, Bork, Bork! (I knew all that time watching “The Muppet Show” would pay off eventually.) Beware if you choose to get creative with your interface language, however; I found it easy enough to read Bork, Bork, Bork! (disturbing, I know) but had to randomly change the language from Hacker to Catalan before I could read it well enough to switch it back to English. Hey, I never claimed to be a programmer!
My favorite, though? Pirate, for sure. I be feelin’ lucky, Google!
Also in black, white, and oceanic!
Today we’re up to stage three of Betsy’s spring wardrobe update. The next item Betsy asked for is coverups to go over dresses. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the problem. Yes, the summer months are coming and it’s going to get hot. Unfortunately, plenty of offices seem to be air conditioned to a temperature suitable only to penguins or particularly hot-blooded men in suits. (They measured the temperature in my boss’s office at one of my former jobs and it registered at, no joke, 53 degrees Fahrenheit. This is not, in my opinion, “room temperature.”) This leaves most women and many men with the choice between either freezing in your office or sweltering once you step outside, particularly if your commute involves an AC-less subway platform or a car that’s been baking in the sun for eight hours. Throw in the occasional movie theater and, if you’re lucky, cool evenings at the beach, and having a cute cover-up for your warm-weather dresses is a definite must.
For an office like Betsy’s, cardigans or blazers and other casual jackets are the easiest way to go. Yes, pashminas are great, but if you’re at the office, getting stuff out of drawers, attending meetings, and generally going about your business, wraps just aren’t practical. Today we’ll focus on cardigans — they’re easy to roll and stuff in a biggish handbag, and in the right color, can be hugely versatile.
You may recall that the Pope made some remarks last month about condoms making the AIDS epidemic in Africa worse? The Femmeinistes were apparently not the only people who had trouble swallowing the Pope’s foray into public health issues. France, Germany, UNAIDS, and the respected medical journal The Lancet have all called the Pope’s remarks irresponsible and dangerous, and the Belgian parliament even went so far as to pass a resolution calling the remarks “unacceptable” and calling for a formal protect by the Belgian government. Belgium’s ambassador to the Vatican lodged said protest on Wednesday, spurring the Vatican to issue a formal statement on Friday. From the Associated Press:
The Vatican deplored “the fact that a parliamentary assembly should have thought it appropriate to criticize the Holy Father on the basis of an isolated extract from an interview, separated from its context.”
It said Benedict’s remarks to reporters had been “used by some groups with a clear intent to intimidate, as if to dissuade the pope from expressing himself on certain themes of obvious moral relevance and from teaching the church’s doctrine.”
I have to say I’m unconvinced. I’m a little unclear on how anyone could reasonably intimidate the Pope short of direct threats of physical violence. He’s the Pope. The Vatican is a sovereign state, if possibly the smallest in the world. He’s not subject to Belgian rule. What are they going to do, impose a trade embargo? March the Belgian army into St. Peter’s over idiotic public health remarks? If a formal protest lodged through diplomatic channels with no associated action or threat of action is intimidating to the Seat of Peter these days, I have to wonder how the Crusades ever happened.
I suppose the real issue is someone daring not only to disagree with the Pope’s statements but to have the temerity to say so through formal channels. I can imagine that if you are the Pope, argument is not something you’re used to. (Would that I could invoke infallibility when I start arguing with my father!) But frankly, if he’s not going to confine himself to speaking on purely religious matters (an area in which he can reasonably argue to be if not the ultimate then at least the penultimate authority), then he needs to realize that he is as vulnerable to criticism as anyone else with an opinion.
The full story from the Associated Press here.