Ideal Bite

Here in SF, we have early voting. Meaning: As early as 29 days before the election, you can go to City Hall, walk downstairs, get your ballot, and voilà! Voting completed.

I originally thought that early voting was some great magic conjured up by ever-busy urbanites of SF, but then the boyfriend (who is working for one of the presidential candidates in Indiana at the moment) disabused me of that misconception by telling me that they do early voting in some of even the most rural counties in the country. I'm continually amazed by the radness of the United States.

There is one major drawback to early voting, though - no "I Voted" sticker. Ever since I got to vote in a local countywide election on my actual 18th birthday, and left school midday to cast my ballot simply so I could show off the sticker the rest of the day, my exhibitionist Read the full post... 

"With the power to recycle comes great responsibility."-Peter Parker (well, kind of). During the evolution of my recycling/composting know-how, I'm afraid I've unwittingly chucked at least a spoon or two in the wrong bin. Understanding the diff between what you can recycle, what you can compost, and what you have to trash is tricky, and doing it the wrong way can really throw a noncompostable fork into the works.

So practice. And there's no better place to practice than at work, where you at least occasionally eat takeout and deal with the detritus that comes with it (even if you do only take one napkin).

What's more, there's nothing like proper disposal to bring a team together. And it's OK to start small.

Just look at our eco-friends

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In college, a certain person I know (and I won't be naming names here, but I'm guessing she'll blush as she reads this blog) used to switch the stickers on fruits and veggies, paying conventional prices for organic produce. And while I never joined in, I definitely enjoyed the fruits of her labor. Here I state for the record: I do not condone this behavior, but I am amused by it. Ditto that for my belly.

-SF Editor Hanah...off to maximize Orson's happy hour in celebration of Hilary's much anticipated arrival...

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In honor of the Seattle Bite's first-week anniversary, here's a bit about our newest member of the team, Seattle Bite Editor Jen Harper:

How Jen heard about Ideal Bite: "It was actually during one of my plane trips to sunnier spots (Desert Hot Springs, CA, to be exact) during dreary December. I grabbed a Domino magazine at the airport, and it had a little profile of Jen Boulden and Ideal Bite - I was totally hooked."

Jen's eco-confession: Jen loves to fly to sunny places, especially during Seattle's long, gray season, which lasts about eight months. (Says Jen: "I was totally fretting when yesterday's Seattle tip ran about ways to color your world

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A few months ago, I cleared out my bathroom cupboard, unearthing some crazy precautionary anti-malaria-typhoid-god-knows-what horse pills I got before traveling to India, an inhaler from the Bronze Age, and a few expired antihistamines.

So I went to my pharmacist and asked if they'd dispose of them - no, they didn't, was the first answer, so I asked if they knew of an outside service - they thought they might actually have a program but the guy who knew about it wasn't around. A few weeks later, I tried again - no info was again the first answer, then the clerk thought about it, asked a few other people, and at long last, produced a URL for me to find locations in SF.

Yes, an online search would have yielded the same info, but I'm wondering how many pharmacy clerks out there simply aren't aware that there are programs that

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News flash: The economy's in the dumper. It's times like these that you wanna put your money somewhere low-risk, and in spite of my lack of a degree in finance, I'd like to suggest a certificate of deposit (CD) with a green bank.

I recently funneled some funds into CDs with New Resources and HSBC. If you've been reading your tips, you might know New Resources as maybe the greenest bank in the nation, but HSBC's greenness was news to me. Turns out it's ranked first when it comes to climate change among big banks (as ranked by Ceres, which is this well-respected organization for responsible investors). It also offers a green credit card Read the full post... 

We recently began composting in the SF Biter office, which seems like a very big duh. I won't lie - I kinda get off on meticulous trash separation...

A small change around the office that I'm happy to see, but didn't foresee? Composting bins in the restrooms. Sure, hand dryers would be optimal, but not everyone has those, and not everyone's wiping their wet palms on their pants, either. To help cut into the 3,000 tons of paper towel waste we generate in the United States each day, see if you can get your office/gym/bar to put in a composting bin alongside the trash can.

-SF Editor Hanah...off to shake it at Rickshaw Stop to help raise money for Read the full post... 

Yeah, my dad lets the Halloween pumpkins rot in the front yard. "They'll grow new pumpkins next year, Hanah." (Hasn't happened once.) But that's old news.

New news: The great pumpkin tree. Pumpkins don't grow on trees? Oh yes, they do. Papa Snavely has rigged a pumpkin vine up and around a young juniper tree in our front yard, so now two live lil' orange pumpkins rest on a juniper branch, seemingly growing from it. A pumpkin tree. And people are amazed by this - I mean, really impressed. They pass by on the street, stop, look closer, poke, poke again, rustle a branch, and eventually walk away slowly, usually shaking their heads, bewildered. They want to believe...

-SF Editor Read the full post... 

Part of my two-bag-limit move to the West Coast included two towels: one, an apartment-warming gift from a friend, and the other I "borrowed" from my mom years ago - it now looks like a pack of wild dogs got at it (coverage? Not so much). This weekend I broke down and bought a couple fluffy, driftwood-hued Haven Hotel organic towels from Macy's. They're actually supersoft (the word on organic terry is usually not so) and I felt all cozy coming out of this morning's shower - despite the autumn chill on my nonradiant floor.

-Senior Editor Theresa...off to pick up a pair of organic slippers...

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I'm no germaphobe, but even if you wear gloves, pull your shirt over your hands, or somehow manage to sit down before the bus moves and use your pants as a buffer, you still kinda have to make contact with...whatever...when you take those things off. Still gotta wash your hands.

Fellow publicly transported people, we're all in this together: Can ya just shower already, make sure you're not leaking anything, and stay at home if you're sick? Pretty please?

-Jenifer Morgan...off to lather up...

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