Ethic Soup

Dennis Hopper Still Hangs in his Venice Neighborhood: A Memorial Mural Goes Up

Dennis Hopper Mural in Venice, CA, by Artists Madsteez and MAR

 

The most recent news featuring the late Dennis Hopper is a memorial mural in Venice, CA., where he was a neighborhood fixture. Two local artists, Madsteez and MAR, recently completed a mural to commemorate Hopper in the beach community.

A MEMORIAL COLLABORATION

Madsteez, who had  previously painted a Hopper portrait, pictured below, agreed to the collaborative project suggested by MAR as an homage to Hopper's legacy as a long time, loved resident in Venice.

"We heard 1,000's of comments while painting this piece but the one that means the most was when an older gentleman walked up and matter-of-factly said, 'It's about time,' " reports the LAist. You can view a video of the mural being painted on the Madsteez website. 

 

Hip Hip Sciuridae! It's Squirrel Appreciation Day

Grand Canyon Squirrel - Photo by Sharon McEachern - Copyright EthicSoup.com

 

Today is Squirrel Appreciation Day. Oh, yes, it is.

Called "suburban rodents" by those who do not appreciate squirrels on any day, the little guys are part of Sciuridae -- the scientific name for the squirrel family.

Squirrels do not hibernate, as pointed out by Washington Post columnist John Kelly: "They're out there 24/7, living la vida squirrela: climbing trees, foraging for nuts, chittering, trying to get into your attic, getting flattened by steel-belted radials."

Fun-to-read, Kelly has written often about squirrels, here, here and here. 

Why does this special day for squirrels occur in late January?  The wildlife rehabilitator who founded Squirrel Appreciation Day back in 2001, Christy Hargrove of Asheville, North Carolina, figured squirrels were running out of food sources around this time of year, according to the National Wildlife Federation.

 

GOOD NEWS: Anonymous Woman Pays Water Utility Bills for 17 Families

 

IT CAN BE a wonderful world. It's nice to have this belief reinforced during the holidays, which can be a time of despondency for many, especially during an economic crisis when so many have lost their jobs and can't even pay their utility bills.

Not having running water, a basic need, is a low blow. Needing to take buckets to a neighbor's house for some of their water, so you can flush your toilet, can be a humiliating chore.

To get clean you have to wash in the sink in a convenience store's bathroom and pray they don't ask you to leave because you can't buy anything.

Just hearing about the woman in Iowa City, Iowa, who insisted on remaining anonymous, has been inspiring to many. 

The woman walked into City Hall to pay her own water bill. Then she donated $1,640 to pay off the delinquent balances of 17 families, to ensure that they would have running water over the holidays, reported the Iowa City Press-Citizen. 

Colorado Towns Ban Plastic Bags, Charge Fees for Paper Bags

   Mt Sopris visible from Carbondale, Co.  Photo: Flickr/Thad Roan/Bridge Pix

 

 

PLASTIC grocery bags are being banned and fees attached to paper bags in more Colorado towns.

 Preserving the majestic beauty of the pristine Rocky Mountains, formed between 80 million and 55 million years ago, is of great benefit to its residents and visitors. Who wants to look out their window at evergreens holding onto plastic bags that float by ? 

More importantly, protecting the environment from plastic pollution is the ethical thing to do.

Recently we reported on the new Aspen ordinance banning the city's two grocery stores from distributing plastic bags and ordering a 20-cent fee on paper bags.

Now, there are two more Colorado towns restricting or placing fees on single-use, carryout shopping bags. The hope is that the efforts will encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bags to the grocery store.

 

Autumn Mosaic of Changing Leaves

Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.

Emily Bronte

 

It is only here in large portions of Canada that wondrous second wind, the Indian summer, attains its amplitude and heavenly perfection -- the temperatures; the sunny haze; the mellow, rich delicate, almost flavoured air: Enough to live -- enough to merely be.

Walt Whitman

Colorado Ski Town, Aspen, Bans Plastic Bags

People in Aspen, Colorado, the renowned and beautiful ski resort town in the Rocky Mountains, don't want their town to look like the landfill below, full of discarded plastic bags. 

Yuck! Of course not.

Aspen is an international glitzy playground of the wealthy and famous. Founded as a mining camp during the Colorado Silver Boom, Aspen's Rocky- Mountain-High beauty was immortalized in resident John Denver's songs "Aspenglow" and "Starwood in Aspen."

Apparently, plastic pollution doesn't fit Aspen's image, nor, apparently its political-correctness.

PLASTIC BAGS BANNED

So, last week, on Oct. 11, 2011, the Aspen City Council voted to ban plastic bags from the town's two grocery stores -- its population hovers at plus-6,000 -- and placed a 20-cent fee on paper bags, reports the Washington Post.

Autumn in the Garden

   
 
Autumn arrives next week, with the official first day of Fall on September 23, 2011.

Tree leaves are beginning to turn colors, from green to yellow, orange , red and brown. Watching their change, I reminisce about my grade school days when I would collect the prettiest leaves I could find and my mother and I would dip them in a pot of hot paraffin wax, colorless and translucent, to seal and preserve them.

The next day I would take them  to school as a gift for my teacher and each year my teacher would decorate the classroom, especially the big bulletin board, with my leaves.

Now when the leaves fall, I'll make good compost after the lawn mower chops them during the last few grass trimmings. The next time the leaves that are collected from the lawn they will be used as mulch, after dividing the perennials and reworking their beds for next season. A cover of thick mulch protection guards against drying winds and frost heaving.

Thankfully, working in an Autumn garden is mostly chores in anticipation of next Spring. If it weren't for that fact, an Autumn garden would be too sad. As it is, the dying flowers remind us of our own limited time on earth and our thoughts turn to death.

 

                                                       

 Autumn in the Garden

by Henry van Dyke

 

Autumn Meditations: A Short Prayer, Carl Sandburg and John Keats Poems

 
An Autumn Prayer 

We bless you,

God of Seed and Harvest

And we bless each other

That the beauty of this world

And the love that created it

Might be expressed through our lives

And be a blessing to others

Now and always

Amen

 

Lawyers Told: Sleep in Pods at Work, Or Don't Come Back

 

A decade ago during the dot-com-bubble it was computer geeks, working for start-ups in Silicon Valley, who only slept a few hours daily -- zipped up in sleeping bags, on the floors of their cubicles.

Today it's lawyers in London who don't have time to go home for some sleep. Instead they are being provided with Japanese-style sleeping pods designed for one-night stay-overs, reports the Guardian.

Can American law firms be far behind?

LAWYERS WORKING NIGHT & DAY

The lawyers are "working night and day on big corporate cases," according to the ABA Journal, which adds that much of the pressure can be attributed to "client demand."

Comments from readers of The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog include one from Anonymous, who wrote: "I am somewhat comforted by the idea of keeping the attorneys in their cages for their protection, and the protection of others."

Reader Anon wrote: "Can't these people just sleep on a couch in the office like everybody else?"

It's Spring! Gardeners Say a Little Prayer

 

The gardener's prayer/poem that follows is by Czech author, playwright and journalist Karel Capek. May the Lord grant, to all of us who garden, nature's rewards for being alive and smelling good. (I can't help it, as it's part of my nature.)

 

Gardener's Prayer

by Karel Capek

 

O Lord, grant that in some way

it may rain every day,

Say from about midnight until three o'clock

in the morning,