Archive for January 5, 2009
Shamwow!
If you haven’t seen the ads for Shamwow, it means you probably haven’t been watching as much TV as I have over the past month. But it also means you should go to their website and be amazed. Watch the video of Vince (who’s an exceptional salesman and housekeeper) using this magnificent, German-made device. It soaks up wine and other spilled beverages in mere seconds, and even pulls liquid up through carpeting. Truly amazing.
But what’s even better is that the ad for Shamwow is telling people to stop using paper towels. Any advertisement that encourages Americans to use fewer disposable goods is a friend of mine (yes, I have friends who are actually commercials), and even though I don’t intend to buy the Shamwow, I am a huge fan (but if you’re reading this, Shamwow people, feel free to send me a free sample and I’ll give it a try). And if you don’t have a drawer in your kitchen that’s full of dish cloths, you might as well drop the $20 and try it out. It will save you bundles in paper towel costs.
Shamwow!
Clean Slate
The holidays. They’re over now (phew), but I’m still feeling the aftershocks. It’s time for a confession.
Christmas is about gifts, and this year I bought a lot of them, made a couple (too few), and received even more. There might be a recession on, and Americans might have experienced a leaner holiday this year, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the mountain of loot that I brought home on December 26th. It’s worth noting that a few of the consumer goods I received were fairly green – I got a compost bin, some gardening tools, and a gift certificate to buy vegetable seeds from Seeds of Change. I also wrapped the presents that I gave in the paper that I saved last year. But for the most part, this Christmas was a nauseating display of consumption and waste.
And there was also food. Too much of it. And lots of alcohol to wash it down. I ate until my stomach hurt on more than one occasion, and threw a New Years party which resulted in a morning-after recycling bag full of bottles and cans whose girth rivaled that of my 1995 volvo sedan. Even a couple of days ago I caught myself eating and drinking to the point of gluttony, excusing my behavior with the pathetic phrase, “it’s the holidays, right?” No, it wasn’t the holidays. It was January.
And it still is January, which means that I’ve still got an opportunity to repent for my holiday season sins (more…)
