Ideal Bite

When I first heard about Ideal Bite, I was like, "Great concept, but there's gonna come a day when they run out of things to write about. Then what?"

Almost 700 tips later, we're still going strong, with enough excellent tip ideas to take us well into 2009.

Right now the big thing on my plate is planning a theme week for next year called Biter's Believe It Or Not Week. Each day we'll focus on something that's kind of hard to believe, but true. Wanna make my job way easier? Submit a green tip that really, really surprised you when you learned about it, and maybe you'll see your name in lights that week...well, maybe not lights, maybe more like light-gray text in the email tip, but you'll definitely have my gratitude!

-Toshio...off to brainstorm... Read the full post... 

Whether washing your hands in a public bathroom actually gets rid of germs or attaches more to you probably depends on the place, but for my part, I don't really see the point in scrubbing up, only to then put my freshly cleaned mitts on a faucet and door handle that strangers-who-have-touched-god-knows-what have wielded. So if I need to wash hands before, say, eating out at a restaurant, my choices are to a) use a liquid hand-sanitizer or b) wash my hands in the bathroom, then use my forearm and/or elbow to turn on the faucet and turn the door handle on my way out.

I recommend that latter, if you can bust the moves, since it means one less thing to carry around and one less plastic bottle to recycle. If you use a paper towel to dry, you can even use it as a kind of mitten until you've opened the Read the full post... 

There are few moments that really sum up the college experience like dressing up as character in Greek mythology (after finishing up a paper on The Odyssey) for a drunken toga party (see today's Personally Speaking section). But like so many times when strange things come together, magic happens.

Now, you'll forgive me if I don't...quite...remember what went into that batch of "cocktails" we mixed up and threw some pomegranate seeds into, but it was something like this punch. Pretty much, pomegranates, sugar, and miscellaneous booze equals good times.

Happy holidays!

-Jenifer Morgan...off to Hades... Read the full post... 

There are few moments that really sum up the college experience like dressing up as character in Greek mythology (after finishing up a paper on The Odyssey) for a drunken toga party (see today's Personally Speaking section). But like so many times when strange things come together, magic happens.

Now, you'll forgive me if I don't...quite...remember what went into that batch of "cocktails" we mixed up and threw some pomegranate seeds into, but it was something like this punch. Pretty much, pomegranates, sugar, and miscellaneous booze equals good times.

Happy holidays!

-Jenifer Morgan...off to Hades... Read the full post... 

Just in case you missed it in your Ideal Bite Daily Tip, check out today's Green Tuesday specials just for you Biters. Your power to affect change through your purchase choices continues to grow, so if you are gonna spend anyway, go on and make that money green(er)!

Note: Codes were good only on November 27, 2007, and are no longer valid.

• Blooming Lotus - personal care products. Get 20% off of orders over $40; enter BITER in the coupon code field at checkout.
• Brilliant Earth - diamond jewelry. Get 10% off pre-selected earrings and pendants; just enter IDEALBITE in the reference code field at checkout.
• BTC Elements -

Read the full post... 

My family used to pile into the car a few nights before Christmas to drive around town and look at all the holiday-light displays. Cruising slowly down streets with no particular destination isn't the most eco-friendly thing ever, but as kids, me, my brother, and my sister loved it.

With new LED technology, these light shows can be just as spectacular at a tiny percentage of the energy costs. In addition to switching to LEDs, consider getting a timer for your lights - nobody's looking at 'em at 3 a.m. anyways, and the birds will sure appreciate it.

-Toshio...off to fly south for the winter... Read the full post... 

Nothing compares to the first time, but unlike twice-worn underwear, Thanksgiving leftovers don't have to be a total bummer.

Witness the results of my recent conversations with the Biter team:

Brett (tech guru):

"We always make turkey sandwiches the day after Thanksgiving. Just some little buns, turkey, and mayonnaise (or some other condiment)."   

Kinsey (graphics master):

"My mom's favorite thing to do with leftover mashed potatoes is to make patties out of them and fry them up in a pan. They get all crispy and delicious on the outside, and gooey-mashed-potato-goodness on the inside. She's half-Swedish, so I guess it's sort of her take on a potato latke. Yum."

Beth (NY Bite editrix):

"We always made ‘Thanksgiving on a sandwich,' which was turkey, mashed Read the full post... 

One of my roommates just threw out the chore wheel that used to be posted on the fridge - I believe in protest of someone (s/he knows who s/he is) not keeping up with her/his assignments.

Even without the construction paper and brass brad contraption, I continue to uphold my duty as trash-taker-outer. Like doing laundry and washing dishes, it's one of the few tasks I actually don't mind. In a post-chore wheel world, I'm hoping I can convince the others to let me stick to the trash and forgo scrubbing the bathroom floors and vacuuming, both way worse fates, IMHO.

-Toshio...off to call a maid... Read the full post... 

The only thing I enjoy less than ironing is single-dish washing. Rolling up your sleeves, filling the basin with soapy warm water, and digging in is one thing, but when need to get going and require a specific tool or dish to continue on, it's truly annoying to stop what you're doing and suds up (not to mention that is wastes more water than doing a batch at a time).

This has always been my problem with owning a commuter mug-the need to wash it every day before getting to making a cup of tea or coffee...and so many of them have complicated parts, so it can take some effort to clean it thoroughly - clearly, not a morning person. (Feel free to chuckle at how pathetic that sounds - nay, is.)

For me, it's all about the regular old ceramic mug (preferably one with a funny message or cute animal on it to fight a.m. grog) that gets a quick rinse daily, but a real Read the full post... 

The fur section-in most big department stores, there's a little more wall space separating it from the rest of the store and it's tucked in a back corner. There's no curtain, but it's always seemed to me like the porn room at a video store, the opium den at the back of the restaurant, the sorry little power-hungry man behind the Wizard of Oz...

So is the desire for real fur somehow akin to "indulgences" like sex, drugs, and rock ‘n' rule (um, power)? Huh-uh. No. Knowing what happens to animals whose fur we take, knowing that people profit from cruelty, and especially knowing that there are faux-fur options that match or exceed the 40s glamour we all occasionally covet...there's just no reason to move the curtain aside and delve into that dark place.

OK, so most of us don't-but if you haven't already clicked through to the article about misleading faux fur labels in Read the full post...