Month: April 2017

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Make a Difference

Make a Difference: Is Your Yard Leaking Nutrients?

Nutrients that leak from your yard can go into nearby rivers, lakes and streams

You know that sinking feeling you get when you realize that something you’ve been doing — or have been failing to do — is a problem? I recently experienced that when I read a Minnesota Public Radio report on how homeowners can affect a river’s health.

I recommend reading the article, but here’s the short version: While agriculture has an enormous effect on local watersheds, homeowners also bear responsibility for the health of nearby sources of water. Two of the biggest problems are over-fertilizing lawns and failing to pick up pet waste. We look for nutrients in our food, but we don’t want too many in our water; otherwise, we have problems like algae blooms.

My family is really lazy in terms of lawn care, so we don’t over-fertilize. But, as the article noted, many people are good about picking up dog waste on walks but are not particularly good about picking up waste in their yards. I’m one of those people.

There are some easy solutions. I’m going to have to make more of an effort to clean up after our dog in the yard on a regular basis. If you don’t have a dog, you’re off the hook for this one.

If you’re better than we are about fertilizing your lawn, you can fertilize it less by engaging in practices like leaving grass clippings on your lawn, top dressing your lawn with a mix of compost and soil, testing your soil to get fertilizer recommendations, and timing your fertilizer application for the fall, when your lawn is most likely to store the nutrients it receives.

You can also cut down on the amount of fertilizer you use by reducing the size of your lawn and introducing more native plants to your garden.

A rain garden is more effort, but it can really cut down on the nutrients that leave your yard and reach the watershed. Have you ever seen spray-painted messages near your neighborhood sewers that say “This drains to the river”? Think of a rain garden as a filter system between your yard and the gutters that lead to those sewers. You’re giving the nutrients to the plants in your rain garden rather than sending them into nearby streams and rivers.

If you own a home, take some time to consider if there are steps you need to take to stop nutrients from leaking from your yard to the watershed. You know what I’ll be working on!

 

 

Categories
Something Wonderful

Something Wonderful: “My Hero Academia” (“Boku no Hero Academia”)

When I wrote about “Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto,” I promised not to try to convert my readers into dedicated anime viewers, but I did say that there are gems worth watching. “My Hero Academia” (“Boku no Hero Academia”) is one that I can’t help mentioning, particularly because I think it will appeal to Harry Potter fans.

This series is set in an unspecified future, when superpowers have become the norm. Approximately 80 percent of the world’s population has some sort of “quirk,” or special power. Many people have relatively minor quirks, but the most powerful may become heroes, gaining fame and fortune as they battle villains. Especially talented children compete for slots at U.A., an elite high school from which heroes are recruited.

Izuku Midoriya is a quirkless boy who has wanted nothing more than to be a hero since he was very young. He studies heroes carefully, writing down everything about them in his notebooks. His life changes when he is rescued from a villain by his idol, All Might, the “Symbol of Peace.” With All Might’s help, Izuku is able to pursue the dream he thought was unattainable.

The series is by no means a ripoff of Harry Potter, but parallels are there. U.A. is much like Hogwarts, and All Might plays a similar role in Izuku’s life to the one that Dumbledore plays in Harry’s. Just as Harry and Draco Malfoy are enemies, there is a strong rivalry between Izuku and his classmate Katsuki Bakugou. Izuku even seems to be developing a close friendship with two classmates — a girl and a boy.

“My Hero Academia” has the sense of adventure that is present in some of my favorite anime series. It also explores themes like motivation and heroism without ever getting heavy-handed. Its second season recently started. I wasn’t as crazy about the first couple of episodes of the new season as I was about last season (in fact, episode 13.5 is just a recap of season one), but the last couple of episodes have gotten better, and I have high hopes that this season will end up as good as the last. I do recommend you start with the first season rather than relying on the recap. You can view “My Hero Academia” on Crunchyroll, Funimation, or Hulu. Do yourself a favor and watch the subtitled version, not the dubbed version.

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Make a Difference

Make a Difference: Watch The Chocolate Case

Tony's Chocolonely bar

A few weeks ago my husband sent me an email about a movie showing at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival. “I think you’ll be interested,” he wrote. I was.

The movie was The Chocolate Case, a 2016 documentary from the Netherlands. The Chocolate Case tells the story behind  Tony’s Chocolonely, a chocolate company that sprang out of a journalistic prank designed to draw attention to slavery in the cocoa industry.

I was already aware of Tony’s Chocolonely and the story of how reporter Teun van de Keuken took himself to court, more or less, as someone who was complicit in human trafficking due to his consumption of chocolate. I had just begun giving chocolate-tasting parties to raise awareness of slavery in the cocoa industry. I was intrigued by Teun’s story and by claims made by Tony’s Chocolonely that fair-trade chocolate bars could not, in fact. claim to be 100% slave-free. Their product was not available in the United States at that time, so I continued to emphasize the importance of looking for Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance or UTZ certified products when shopping for chocolate.

The Chocolate Case gave me more of the story. I was horrified to see that Fair Trade certification can fail if cooperatives are poorly monitored. When Tony’s Chocolonely tried to verify that the beans they were buying for their bars were truly slave-free, they discovered that farmers participating in their particular cooperative were not getting paid the extra money they were supposed to be making as members, and even if they were receiving payments, membership fees could exceed profits from the cooperative. After this discovery, they worked to establish their own relationships with farmers so that they could verify the farms from which their cocoa beans were coming and the conditions on those farms.

The movie alternates between funny and upsetting. The journalistic team behind the enterprise never intended to launch a chocolate company; they wanted to persuade an existing company to create a slave-free chocolate bar to celebrate the 2005 release of the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. When they couldn’t find someone to do it, they took it on themselves. Their chocolate was a roaring success in the Netherlands, and they eventually had to turn the company over to people who had the business experience to continue its growth. Their dedication to making a real difference in the cocoa industry is the sort of thing that resonates with me, so by the end of the movie, I’d turned into a fangirl for the company and for the Dutch journalists who wanted to change the cocoa industry.

The movie doesn’t end on a particularly hopeful note; one speaker cited a study by Tulane University that found conditions weren’t really better than a decade ago. The report focuses on child labor, not slave labor, but regardless of the focus, the picture isn’t pretty. Overall, more children in the cocoa industry in both Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are being exposed to hazardous work than five years ago. Approximately a quarter of the children working are between the ages of 5 and 11. The study is disturbing and discouraging, but certainly the appropriate response is not to give up.

What made the viewing I attended particularly rewarding was the presence of Peter Zandee, U.S. sales manager for Tony’s Chocolonely. The company recently established a presence in the United States starting in Portland, Oregon. It has since begun to spread eastward and plans to eventually be available across the country. Peter answered questions after the movie, and I was fortunate enough to be able to ask him my question: Have any improvements occurred in Fair Trade certification since their initial disturbing evidence of problems in at least one cooperative a decade ago? He told me that he thought there had been improvement; Tony’s itself is Fair Trade Certified and sees itself as a “critical member” of the certifying body, working to improve fair trade for all. Given that, I feel comfortable continuing to promote choosing fair-trade chocolate over conventional bars.

There was another surprise added to our evening: samples of Tony’s Chocolonely bars. I received a dark chocolate almond sea salt bar. Because I think nuts usually spoil the experience of eating chocolate, I was a little disappointed; however, the bar was quite good. I would be willing to buy it, nuts and all.

The Chocolate Case is currently doing the film festival circuit. In addition to Minneapolis, it has shown in places like Burlington, Vermont; New York City; and Glasgow. It’s not yet available for purchase or rental, so I advise keeping an eye out for it either at a local film festival or, after some time has passed, on Amazon, on Netflix, or at your library. When you have the chance to view it, ask some friends to join you! In the meantime, start asking co-ops in your area if they are carrying Tony’s Chocolonely or if they plan to do so.

Categories
Something Wonderful

Something Wonderful: Artemisia Gentileschi

Artemisia Gentileschi's Self-Portait as the Allegory of Painting
Self-portrait as the Allegory of Painting by Artemisia Gentileschi (circa 1638)

Have you ever tried to name five or more female artists off the top of your head? How did you fare?

I hope you thought of Georgia O’Keeffe and Frida Kahlo. Did you remember to include Mary Cassatt? Who else made the list?

I added Artemisia Gentileschi to the list of female artists I know when I attended a lecture on her at the Minneapolis Institute of Art about 20 years ago. Artemisia was an Italian painter who lived from approximately 1593 to 1653. Her father, Orazio, was a respected artist who taught all of his children to paint, but only Artemisia showed real talent. Her legacy is overshadowed by the story of how her perspective tutor, Agostino Tassi, raped her and how she was tortured during his trial. Her paintings of active, powerful women are frequently viewed through the lens of the rape and trial, causing some people to see them as revenge fantasies.

During the lecture, we explored her first painting of Susanna and the Elders, which illustrates a critical moment in a story from the apocrypha of the Bible. Briefly, the story involves Susanna, a virtuous married woman who was accosted by two Jewish elders who hid in her garden and caught her bathing alone. They offered her a choice: she could have sex with them, or they would say that they caught her with a young man, and she would be put to death. Susanna chose death, but after she was accused of adultery, the young Daniel questioned the elders separately and discovered that their stories conflicted. Susanna was saved, and the elders were executed.

Many painters have captured the moment when Susanna was first confronted by the elders. A few have shown her reacting violently to their suggestion, but in many cases she only appears mildly distressed, and in others she even seems to welcome their attention.

Da Ponte's Susanna and the Elders
Susanna and the Elders by Jacopo da Ponte, 1571
Allori Susanna and the Elders
Susanna and the Elders by Alessandro Allori (1535-1607)

Artemisia’s first take on the subject, painted before her rape, shows a woman who is clearly repulsed by the elders. The image is powerful, because she brings a woman’s point of view to the story. It’s not that a male painter is incapable of expressing empathy for Susanna; the problem is that few men seem to have tried to imagine how she felt about the elders’ proposition.

Artemisia Gentlischi's Susanna and the Elders
Susanna and the Elders by Artemisia Gentileschi (1610)

Besides this rendition of Susanna and the Elders, Artemisia is most famous for her four paintings of Judith, also from the Bible’s apocrypha. Judith was a wealthy Jewish widow who saved her people from the Assyrian general Holofrenes by beheading him in his own tent as he lay in a drunken stupor. Two of Artemisia’s pictures show Judith and her maid in the act of beheading Holofrenes, and two are set after the fact.

Like Susanna, Judith was a popular subject of paintings. One of the most famous renditions of the beheading is by Caravaggio. In his painting, Judith keeps her distance from her victim, and the look on her face seems to be one of both concentration and disgust. That may be realistic enough for a wealthy woman who never had killed a man before, but the actual beheading seems unreal.

Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofrenes
Judith Beheading Holofrenes by Caravaggio (circa 1598)

Artemisia’s Judith, while she requires the help of her maid to pin Holofrenes to the bed, is powerful and active. She sets about doing what must be done with no fear of the blood she is shedding. Caravaggio is a master, but I find Artemisia’s Judith more believable and heroic. (The Judith below was painted between 1614 and 1620.)

Artimesia Gentileschi's Judith Beheading Holofrenes
Judith Beheading Holofrenes by Artimesia Gentileschi

Artemisia had a long and successful career as an artist, keeping busy until around the time of her death. She worked in Rome, Florence, Naples, and the court of King Charles I of England. She married another painter (the marriage was arranged shortly after the rape trial ended) and had one daughter, whom she taught to paint.

If your knowledge of female artists did not include Artemisia Gentileschi, I encourage you to search for her paintings online. Her art is often powerful and masterful. For those qualities alone, Artemisia is worth your time.

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Make a Difference

Make a Difference: Fight Light Pollution

The night sky unmarred by light pollution

Have you ever been frustrated about not being able to view the beautiful night sky because of the glare of city lights? Have you ever considered buying blackout curtains because neighborhood lights are disturbing your ability to sleep well?

Most of us become aware of light pollution through its impact on our lives; that certainly has been the case for me. But intrusive lights that disrupt our sleep and interfere with our ability to enjoy the night sky are just two of the effects of light pollution. It’s harmful to wildlife, disturbing migration patterns and nocturnal behaviors. It’s suspected of harming human health as it disrupts our own daily rhythms. Our heavy use of light at night also increases carbon dioxide emissions.

Fortunately, light pollution is one of the easiest forms of pollution to reverse. The best way to start your journey toward fighting light pollution? Educate yourself. The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) is a great resource for learning more about light pollution and ways to change light usage at night.

Take a look at your own light usage. Are you using lights that aren’t necessary? Is the lighting you use appropriate for the task? I wish a couple of my neighbors who keep outdoor lights on all night long would ask themselves these questions; their lights are bright and directed in such a way that they are very visible. IDA’s website suggests how to approach neighbors about intrusive lighting; I haven’t felt bold enough to talk with my neighbors, in part because we use blackout curtains. Perhaps if my personal pain were greater, I’d chat with them about their lighting.

Let other people know about light pollution. The folks in your life who love to look at the night sky are very aware of this, but with the well-deserved attention to other environmental issues like climate change and plastic in the oceans, light pollution may fall off people’s radars. Share what you’re learning on social media, or bring it up in appropriate venues, such as a city meeting about lighting ordinances or on work teams that are discussing environmental issues.

I see these as three of the easiest and most effective ways to handle light pollution, but IDA has several more suggestions. What will you do this week to take a step toward restoring our night skies?

 

Categories
Something Wonderful

Something Wonderful: The Silent Miaow

Cover of The Silent Miaow by Paul Gallico

Paul Gallico begins The Silent Miaow claiming that his neighbor found the manuscript on his doorstep. It seemed to be written in some sort of indecipherable code, so, knowing that Gallico had a mind for such things, the neighbor turned it over to him. After some time, Gallico discovered that what had appeared to be a code could be explained if someone tried to type a manuscript with a paw. From there, he says, it was relatively easy to translate the entire manuscript, which has the subtitle “A Manual for Kitten, Strays and Homeless Cats.”

Any cat lover (and perhaps some cat haters, too) will delight in Gallico’s “how to” manual written from the point of view of a cat. First published in 1964, the book is a product of its time (the author advises cats to avoid irritating the man of the house after Christmas when the bills come in), but the overall concept of a book instructing cats on how to take over a house is just as humorous today as it was 50 years ago. In fact, you can easily find a used paperback version of the book that was published in 1985, so clearly it was popular enough 20 years after it was published to be worth reprinting.

The manual is written from the point of view of a stay kitten who decided to adopt a couple after her mother was hit by a car. After telling the story of how she successfully insinuated herself into her family’s life, she proceeds to instruct her readers on how to get along in the human world so that they are able to successfully manage families of their own. There are chapters on topics like property rights, food, doors, and speech, which includes these instructions:

I have referred in the above section to the pitiful miaow as among the most effective sounds you can produce to get some action out of your people, and to this must be added the sound that all of you will know how to produce, which has a most remarkable softening-up effect; it is that little lilt of ours, a chirrup, which goes, “Prrrr-maow,” with a rising inflection upon the last syllable. This sound of ours has no specific use vis-à-vis people; except that for some reason or other it just seems to make them feel fine, and puts them into a good humor. … I simply call it to your attention as yet another item in the armory for keeping our people in a state of subjugation and prepared to wait on us.

The author tells female cats to consider avoiding kittens, because as a family works “to place the kittens in adequate homes, they might just suddenly wonder what life would be like without any cat at all about the house. Once you get them thinking that, you could be halfway out the door.” She advises her readers on good manners, such as not getting on the dining table: “Stealing is for dogs. We are above it.” She shares her thoughts on Two-Timing (maintaining a presence in two households), which she describes as “not very nice.”

Anyone who has owned a cat will recognize their pet in the chapter on “games and recreations.”

Every well-educated house cat ought to know when and how to break them up. For instance, there is no point in interfering with a scrabble game at the very beginning. … The proper method is to wait until the board is practically full with a most complicated arrangement of words. Then, jump up onto the board with the most sweetly saccharine “Purrrrrrmaow” that you can muster, scatter the pieces in all directions, sit down, and commence to wash.

The book is illustrated with cat photos by Suzanne Szasz. In Gallico’s story, he says the cat in the photos is Cica, who had taken over a family “under circumstances not dissimilar to those outlined in the narrative part of the manuscript, and they owned a typewriter — as it happened, an electric one.” Although Gallico channels a cat quite well, the book would not be the same without Szasz’s wonderful photos.

I don’t know how easy it is to check out a copy of The Silent Miaow from a library. I reread my mom’s copy for this post; my county library system didn’t have it. But even if you can’t borrow it through your local library or via interlibrary loan, you can probably find an affordable used copy online. It’s worth your trouble.

 

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Make a Difference

Make a Difference: Read There Is No Good Card for This

Cover of There Is No Good Card for This

I just finished reading There Is No Good Card For This: What to Say and Do When Life Is Scary, Awful, and Unfair to People You Love. I highly recommend it.

If you’ve ever been unsure about what to say to someone who is going through a rough situation — illness, infertility, job loss, divorce, you name it — this book can help. It encourages you not to avoid speaking to people just because you feel awkward about their situation. It also gives you tips on what to say (and not to say) and how to help your friends, family members, neighbors, and coworkers when they really need you the most. Above all, it emphasizes that the best things you can do for someone are to show up, be kind, listen, and offer whatever you can — whether that’s cooking a meal, helping the person buy groceries, sending a card, or stopping by with ice cream and a movie.

The book is cowritten by Kelsey Crowe, founder of Help Each Other Out, and Emily McDowell, creator of Empathy Cards. Emily illustrated the book, and some of her Empathy Card designs are featured in it; I’ve bookmarked her site for future “there is no good card for this” times.

There Is No Card For This is a quick, easy read, but it is meaty enough that I’ve put it on my “books to buy” list. It is full of examples of how people have been touched or hurt by someone else’s attempt to reach out to them (or by people ignoring their situation). It has “cheat sheets” for what to say to and do for people who are facing illness, divorce, fertility issues, loss, and unemployment. Also, it includes an “empathy menu” of ways you can help someone going through a tough time. This set of prompts can help you if you feel stuck when you’re thinking about what to do for someone in need. Often the last thing a person who is overwhelmed with grief or illness wants to deal with is telling others what they need — in part, because it puts one more burden on them, and in part because when they do come up with things they need, people who offered to help say, “Oh, I can’t do that.” (That doesn’t mean people who are going through something tough can’t request what they need, nor does it mean that you can’t say “no.” It’s just rough on a person when you say you want to help, ask them to tell you what they need, and then say you can’t do it.)

I checked the book out from my local library, so it should be easily available to you whether you decide to purchase it or borrow it. If you want to make a difference in the lives of people around you, this book will give all sorts of ideas!

Categories
Something Wonderful

Something Wonderful: The Lunchbox

The Lunchbox movie poster

The tiffin delivery service in Mumbai is famous for its accuracy. The Indian film The Lunchbox (2013) starts with a misdelivered tiffin and unfolds from there.

Ila is a housewife in an unhappy marriage. That first misdelivered tiffin is filled with food she hopes will make her husband fall in love with her again. It arrives at the desk of Saajan Fernandes, a lonely widower facing retirement. He’s supposed to be training in his eager young replacement, but he’s clearly reluctant to do so.

Ila quickly figures out that whoever enjoyed her special lunch was not her husband, so she sends the next lunch with a note. She receives a terse reply but continues to send lunches and notes rather than correcting the delivery service. Saajan also ignores the fact that his lunches are the result of a mistake (after all, Ila’s cooking is better than that of the restaurant that was supplying his meals). Instead, he sends the empty tiffin back with responses to Ila’s notes. Their correspondence becomes increasingly intimate.

I’m not fond of stories about affairs. I hated both The Bridges of Madison County and The English Patient. But The Lunchbox is a different story, in part because Ila’s husband is so horrible, and in part because… well, you’ll just have to watch the movie. I don’t want to spoil it for you.

The story and the characters are reasons enough to watch this film, but the food is what really won me over when I first saw it. I’m a sucker for a good food movie, and this is an excellent one. You can practically smell Ila’s cooking. Just watch this trailer.

The Lunchbox is available through Amazon, from Netflix (as a disk only), through YouTube Movies, and possibly at your local library. Make reservations at an Indian restaurant and then settle down to watch the movie just before you go. Mmmmmmm….