HOOKED ON USING PLASTIC BAGS

What can one person do about plastic bags that are polluting the world?  We, my husband, John Culllum, and I, are still using plastic bags.

I can blog and remind you guys that what we are doing is harming the world.  Golly, I've blogged about trash a half-dozen times -- describing plastic bags over-filling landfills, clogging lakes, rivers, and oceans that are already filled with trash islands that are cram-jammed with plastic stuff that will never completely degrade even after it becomes -- in 20 to 1000 years -- fragments. The fragmented bits, looking like food, poisoned by chemicals that have created the plastic, continue, like a serial killer, to kill creatures and plants and destroy our ecosystem.

Hey, we've heard most of this bad news before. Why don't we bring previously used bags with us when we shop? Well, we are not lazy, but it's very inconvenient, and ...  well, we forget. My mind is overloaded with blog-writing and publishing routines, and my husband, who buys groceries on his way home from performances and appointments, finds it awkward to bring used plastic bags to the theater or an interview.

The problem is our kitchen garbage can. We fit plastic bags in the can. (two bags in case one leaks). When the can gets full, we remove the bags, put them in the large, heavy duty plasic bag that's in the hall container that our janitor empties once a week. (The city's Sanitation Department disposes of it.) 

Trying, as one small person, to do something, I suggested, "John, we could try to use just one plastic bag in the kitchen can."

Remembering the mess when a bag leaked, John said, "Surely there are some sort of biodegradable liners ..."

I said gee!  Got up from the table, headed for my computer and Googled.

Holy Smoke!  Before my eyes was a page with more than a dozen dealers -- lists of biodegradable bags, liners, all sizes, different strengths -- my God -- phone numbers and links  -- big bags , tall cans, small cans, sandwich bags, food-storage bags -- one box or a case of 25 -- free shipping if you spend $99 -- FDA approved, "completely biodegradable," and prices -- a quick look said they were reasonable.

Hey, we are not poor, and we're not lazy -- we can change our ways, even if it's inconvenient at first.  (If this "plastic bag" blog gets you thinking of doing the same thing -- check biomasspackagin.com; gogreen,com; reuseit.com.)

Will we actually do it? It could take at least an hour, maybe more on the phone. The new bags might not fit; we might  need a new kitchen can. Will I find reasons not to bother? Probably a lot of people haven't stopped using plastic bags for the same reasons that I haven't stopped.

Well ...  if one person can change, other folks can change.

Hey, busy-lazy-lady --  get up and get going -- change your ways today!

(VIDEO) CULLUM AND HACKMAN IN THE FILM "HAWAII"

When John and Gene Hackman were playing missionaries in the film "Hawaii," they discussed their futures.

Suddenly, John was off to do "On a Clear Day," and Gene, not sure where he was heading next, moaned, "I should have studied singing."

Emily and John chat about movie star Hackman's retiring because he doesn't want to play the dying grandpas that John plays now. 

SARAH JESSICA PARKER

I am an advertisement-avoider, but if the face in an ad is Sarah Jessica Parker's,  I pay attention.

She's forty-nine years old now. The first time I saw her was twenty-three years ago, in Steve Martin's film, "LA Story," in which street signs were advising weather-man Steve about his love life. Sarah Jessica played SanDee, a rambunctious, uninhibited teenager who had a crush on him, was dying to sleep with the famous weatherman, though he was in love with another woman.

SanDee danced every line she spoke (or so it seemed) -- wriggling, gesturing, miming -- did it so effortlessly, making made every moment fun, fresh, inventive, seemingly spur of the moment.

Since then there have been many roles, dramatic, quirky comedic, even romantic leads for Sarah Jessica Parker, and she is not a typical Hollywood beauty -- yes, she has great body and expressive face, but it's not a cute face with neat-symmetrical features -- her nose -- (I'll just say it) -- often she looks like a Jewish college girl.

Her looks may have held her back a little. Even so, Sarah Jessica has had a amazing career in films, television, and theater, receiving many awards, nominations, tributes -- much of the "gold" that a famous actress gets. (If you're in the mood for a summary, click the links and visit biography. com  or skim Wikipedia, Sarah Jessica Parker.)

I have to say that "Sex in the City" is the only television series I ever watched religiously. Sarah Jessica Parker, as Carrie, made it work. The other actresses, Kim Catrall, as Samantha, Kristi Davis as Charlotte, and Cynthia Nixon as Miranda, made it work as they interacted amazingly well, with Sarah Jessica. In the course of the years that I have seen this series, (even now as I briefly revisit an episode that's being rebroadcast) these actresses have become even more interesting, and remarkably real.

It's the writing, the concept, the story, the camera work, the clothes, and I think it's the special talent of this woman, I think her "acting" is the real person who is married to the wonderful actor, Matthew Broderick, the woman who has created three children with him and maintained marriage and family, while zestfully continuing to work, grow, and expand her craft.

The forty-nine-year-old Sarah Jessica Parker has an exceptional kind of perseverance and thereness. When I watch her, I don't feel I am watching an actress. Even in the many commercials she does, she just becomes a person explaining how a product worked well for her. I believe her.

What is it?

Perhaps it's a very special, unique, deep trust that Sarah Jessica Parker has in just being herself, being Sarah Jessica Parker.