Ideal Bite

Last night, in a last ditch effort to resurrect three very old, much-worn, once-white blouses, I succumbed to the promise of OxyClean, and soaked them in a basin with the white-and-blue-powdered supersoap for an hour. Now, there's some debate over how eco-friendly this stuff is - sodium percarbonate and soda ash are two of its active main ingredients (better for your skin and clothes than chlorine bleach for sure – and biodegradable), but you still gotta wonder what else is in there...it's not scented with organic lavender essential oils, I'll tell ya.

Meanwhile, my shirts are WHITE – hooboy - which means I don't have to buy new ones. But it brought to mind once again how complicated making good choices can be - if it's, say, a

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You'll be able to use it in a sentence after watching Recycle Bank's The Cycle, an animated film that answers the question, "What happens to my recyclables after I put them out and they are collected?" (Don't pretend you totally know the answer to that...) It's choose-your-own-adventure style, so if you're more metal, less plastic, skip the reclaimer and mosey down the metal smelter path - you just might like it.

-SF Editor Hanah...off to wish that next year, America Recycles Day won't land on a Saturday, because it just might be a perfect candidate for an IB work holiday...

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Another great clothing annoyance besides lint is pilling - you know, those little nubs of fiber that commonly collect on sweaters, especially under the arms. They're kind of like that tiny eyebrow that's too short to pluck, an itch in your inner ear, and cowlicks - totally nonfixable...or so they may seem...

Instead of tediously pulling them off, one by one, or worse, chucking the poor body-warmer entirely, try one of these handy sweater comb contraptions if you don't have one already. You need to be especially gentle with cashmere, but this little beaut really helps keep sweaters looking smart and will last forever (my own's going on five years).

-Jenifer Morgan...off to rattle my brain on a different subject...

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Imagine yourself having just spilled something awful on your shirt. Soy sauce? Liquefied cheese grease? Whatever. It doesn't matter what you spilled, because after you perform this simple trick, it never happened.

Heed: Post-spillage, what you need to do is assess said spot and completely ignore the impulse to dip your napkin into your water glass and dab at it. Dabbing sets the spot. Instead, pick up your water glass and pour, seriously, pour a generous helping of water onto the spot and just leave it. Sit in it. Let it be. Own the damp. Sure, you're sopping wet and you look a bit foolish, but you'll dry out and everyone else'll still be schlepping their finest to the dry cleaners biweekly, like suckers.

-SF Editor Hanah...off to sit and wait patiently for the

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Apparently I'm not alone in hating to do laundry: One survey revealed that 78% of normally rational and reasonable folks transform into the unfriendliest people on Earth upon entering Laundromats.

OK, I just made that up, but the washateria has got to be one of the more joyless places I'm forced to make a habit of visiting. At least we have BrainWash café/Laundromat here in SF. It's still full of dispirited people, but at least we can all order beer.

-SF Editor Mike...off to do an additional round of smell testing...

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Apparently I'm not alone in hating to do laundry: One survey revealed that 78% of normally rational and reasonable folks transform into the unfriendliest people on Earth upon entering Laundromats.

OK, I just made that up, but the washateria has got to be one of the more joyless places I'm forced to make a habit of visiting. At least we have BrainWash café/Laundromat here in SF. It's still full of dispirited people, but at least we can all order beer.

-SF Editor Mike...off to do an additional round of smell testing...

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The problem with buying nice things is that you continually fear losing them or ruining them (one of the reasons Coco Chanel advised wearing costume jewelry over the real thing). My "nice" things include several high-maintenance cashmere cardigans (one of them just had its seventh birthday last week) -they pill, buttons pop off, they consistently endure wine and chocolate stains, but I love them and in the end, it's worth it to me to wash them by hand, comb them, and repair pulled threads.

I've used lots of gentle cleaners, including baby shampoo, but my favorite so far is the cedar-scented Wool and Cashmere Shampoo from the Laundress. It's not cheap, but you don't need to use much, and unlike dry-cleaning, which can disintegrate fibers, a gentle wash-and-lay-flat-to-dry preserves

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If you come anywhere near the Bite offices, you're bound to hear about when exactly Jen will be rescuing another dog from the pound, the just-born chicks in her backyard coop, or how she recently got new boots 'cuz horseshow season's coming up.

Her latest obsession? Getting a goat. As someone who's been to her place in Bozeman, I can tell you she probably has room next to the chicken coop for a little corral, but if she wants to think about getting even one more Cricket-sized dog after that, girl's gonna need a bigger yard.

-Toshio...off to wonder how, with 11 animals, Jen's ever gonna get a date... Read the full post... 

Trust me, your jewelry's dirty.  You don't think it is.  You look at it, and think it looks just like it did when you first got it, but honest - unless you received it as a sweet Valentine's Day gift yesterday - you should really go clean it.

In the end, it's sort of like looking at yourself in the mirror every day. You don't think you look older. Or if you do, you don't think anyone notices. The transition is too subtle.  But one day, you see a photo from five years ago, and you think "OMG, was I ever that young?"

Yeah, you were. And your jewelry used to be a lot shinier, too.

At least you can take care of that last one without resorting to plastic surgery.

-Heather... off to soak some earrings... Read the full post... 

Here in Park City, Utah, where the Sundance Film Festival is overrunning the tiny resort village, I've had ample opportunity to contemplate my feet. I walk the little streets, staring down at my toes, hoping not to slip in the snow or step on some entitled celeb's toes.  The dry, desert mountain air, combined with the cold, is pretty much desiccating every square inch of my skin, and I have to admit, the mini bottles of weak lotion at the hotel do almost nothing to help.  Oh, what I wouldn't give to have brought my TerraNova foot cream...

Mainly, though, I've been contemplating my feet in order to avoid looking at the creepy amounts of fur that seem to be overrunning this place.  I've never seen such a wanton display of "F^*k you, I'll wear whatever I want, regardless of how it is created."  Never.  It's horrifying.

And it's just - quite simply - bizarre. 

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