GREEN

What can we do about Styrofoam cups?

Starbucks has worked on finding a re-usable cup. McDonald's talks about making a new cup that keeps coffee hot and wouldn't cost the store too much money, that's recyclable and compostable, (Styrofoam cups are not).

There's already a guy with a nickname -- "Joey Cups." He, with a team of twelve, have been searching for a Styrofoam cup for Dunkin Donuts.

It's a big deal, money-wise, and as well as cultural, with the amount of coffee that's bought and drunk every day. Current guesstimate: Starbucks services approximately 3 billion customers per year -- it boils down to 462 customers a day or 29 beverages per hour.

Right now, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and Tim Hortons are working together to find a way to recycle beverage containers, and make it a financially smart move.

In Canada, the equivalent of McDonald's is Hortons, a chain started by Tim Horton, a famous Canadian hockey player who died in a car crash in the mid-seventies. His business partner expanded Hortons into a multi-million-dollar international franchise -- 3,040 stores in Canada, 587 in the United States, and franchise deals in the UK and Dublin, Ireland.

Statistics: Roughly 20 million trees and 12 billion gallons of water are needed to manufacture the 58 billion paper cups that end up in the trash every year. (I can't picture a million or a billion cups, gallons, trees, or dollars, but to me, the numbers are shocking.)

Furthermore, most communities can't recycle coffee containers. You have to separate the exterior of the cup from the wax-like inner lining that keeps coffee from leaking out of the cup, and they don't have the equipment.

Also, the US Food and Drug Administration restricts how much recycled fiber can be used in products that come in contact with food.

There isn't a solution yet. Someone came up with the idea for a "Karma Cup" — not a cup, just, the idea that customers could be rewarded with a free cup of coffee after bringing in their own mug, after a certain number of times. Or perhaps the 10th customer arriving with a re-usable cup could be rewarded. But how to keep track hasn't been solved.

Starbucks has featured re-usable mugs, but not very successfully. These mugs are involved in less than 2% of its sales. The fact is, most consumers walk out of the stores with their cups of coffee, and coffee cups can't end up in a landfill.

There's progress. The rivals stores are working together with inventors, trying to create the best "green" cup and sell owners of paper-mills on making shipping boxes out of recycled coffee cups, figuring out ways they can collaborate -- for an example -- getting recyclers a large volume of green cups from all their stores. It makes good business sense.

“It’s really a lot more complicated than people want to think," said Jim Hanna, director of environmental impact at Starbucks, who recently hosted a "cup" summit at MIT. “There really is no alternative but to get these people working together. And you just keep pushing until you get to the real solution.’’

Is solving the recyclable coffee cups problem a prelude to solving what to do with babies' diapers? Sure!
One smart thing we learn
to do about recycling can breed the next, and the next.
And hey, one of these days we'll have green-electricity running the laundry machines that wash our clothes in green water.

POLLS

I read an article in Time Magazine about Mr. Unpopular, and polls, and it's gotten me angry.

Yep. Polls show that Obama is down. The man who was the "savior" is not the savior anymore. His Gallup Poll approval rating was 68%. Now it's hovering in the mid 40%

More poll-math proves that 1 in 4 Americans has changed his/her mind, and white independents under the age of 30 are primarily the ones who've changed.

The polls are telling us that in the November elections, Democrats are on the brink of a setback, the possible loss of Democratic control of both houses in the Congress.

Oh no!! Oh yes indeed! Polls show that the Republicans are on their way back into power.

(Whew -- as far as I am concerned, that is NOT good news!)

And everyday there's another poll -- we're getting more and more polls that show us, teach us, TELL us to pay more attention to the latest polls.

"NOOOO!" I'M HOWLING.

I think polls are media noise. Polls are another kind of Entertainment Tonight -- gossip about famous pretty people with skilled-guessers guessing will so-and-so divorce/sleep with/abuse so-and-so? Poll questionnaire promulgators just dig for dirt in a different way.

Media noise is a weapon in the war between humans and iPhones, Blackberries, Androids -- the marvelous, do-everything phones that keep you involved with their amazing technology night and day. Media moguls, who are vying to win and own "communication-land" -- every acre, every aspect of it -- are honing their polls to advise/tell/show audiences -- US -- what we are thinking, and what we ought to think.

Polls are questionnaires that PhD experts create to ask pollees (us in selected groups), to check yes or no/approve/disapprove/or don' t care -- about people and things -- candidates, food, medicine, politics, clothes, movies, music, and who's got talent, who or what's 's going to be the number one best.

The Mr. Unpopular article on polls shows approval ratings from last year, from this year, and results based on whites/ seniors/ women/independent voters -- their opinions. The resulting percentage numbers are not based on facts or knowledge. The numbers merely reveal the views of a large number of people in today's changing climate of opinion.

Oh yes, sure -- a poll tells you how your thoughts fit in with thoughts of others. But why does that matter? Why do you care? Should you care, or just think your own thoughts?

I did my own poll, discussing with three people who are pro-Obama, politically and philosophically on the same track as I'm on. All three said they couldn't help wondering if President Obama was doing the right thing.

I couldn't shout -- 'it's the damn polls, stupid media noise brain-washing you -- it's in our ears, and in our thoughts -- DOUBT.'

Shakespeare said:
"Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win ..."

IGNORE THE POLLS. BANISH FEAR!

Friends, Romans, countrymen, and Facebookers -- if this November becomes the midterm down time for Democrats, and Democrat's seats in Congress are lost, then the White House will hammer, push, chisel and find a way to move ahead, inch by, as this White House has been doing from day one.

OUT OF TOWN (video)

John and I, in this video, chat about the ten days that he was in Los Angeles and Knoxville. I wrote a post about "My Guy" earlier this week -- but this is the two of us, reviewing some things about being apart, that we haven't had time to discuss.

In L.A, he was playing the Granddaddy in the TV sitcom, "The Middle." Since Thanksgiving is approaching, the producers were shooting the family celebration. Then, off JC flew to his hometown, Knoxville. The University of Tennessee gave him its Distinguished Alumni Award. After spending time with his relatives, John visited with some of his actor friends.

What I find extraordinary -- what I got JC to tell me was how he studied acting, rehearsed plays in a classroom, at the University -- plays which they performed at the Bijou, an old movie theater. The names of the plays in which he performed the leading role during his college days. are not in any John Cullum resume. Even if you haven't seen a lot of theater, you'll recognize most of these titles: "Our Town," "Golden Boy," "Front Page," "Three Men on a Horse," "Come Back Little Sheba," "Death of a Salesman," "The Heiress," "Petrified Forest," "Born Yesterday," "Detective Story."

What JC learned as a student actor -- what he did on the stage of the Bijou in Knoxville, is the basis for everything he's done as an actor ever since.

MAKING IT

A gorgeous looking thirteen-year-old girl has been writing to me. She has all the physical gifts, and the energy -- all the do it, get it, grab it thoughts.

"Be brave," is all I can write back to her.

Actresses and actors with credits, talent, and ideas write me, and often reveal their fears about their age and the ever increasing competition -- that younger versions of themselves are everywhere. They have made it, but having made it does not bring much relief. They can't say, "I don't have to worry about making it anymore."

"Stay confident," that's all I suggest to them when I reply, though part of me wants to add, "keep your fingers crossed."

Whenever writers of plays, novels, short stories, musicals operas, or poems talk to me, whether they sound confident, or not, I know behind what they're saying to me is their deep concern with earning a living, getting an audience, getting respect or some semblance of respect from their families, and the critics.

"Yes," I echo when I write them, "I know what you mean!"

How do I advise someone who'd hasn't asked for advice, but reveals that he or she needs it?

I have said it before, and I'll say it again -- if you commit yourself to being an "Artist" -- take on a job, a vision, and call yourself an ARTIST -- going on with the project, whatever it is, continuing, not getting discouraged is the work of your work. Click and read " Ladder" -- climbing a ladder without rungs.