I read an interesting article about the "Crying Indian" and how Keep America Beautiful (which funded the PSA) is a front for the soft drink industry. (I luuuuuurve Orion magazine)

On a contemporary note, the National Recycling Coalition just narrowly rejected merging with KAB (it got a majority yes vote, but not the 2/3 required to pass). NRC is, unfortunately, probably going to go into bankruptcy, hence the potential merger.

No wonder the postal system is so spotty.

I was browsing through the book The Anglo-Files recently and there was a whole chapter on the horrors of the British postal service. What had once been a smooth, and efficient system had turned into a completely unreliable nightmare. It was not uncommon for carriers to ditch their mail instead of delivering it.

But the chapter on dental care in the UK (titled, "I Just Snapped it Off Myself") was way more horrifying. But even that's started to change since the new millenium.

In sum: The Big Book of British Smiles isn't just a joke on the Simpsons.

Corollary: Reading a British author's memoir recently he made note that having all your teeth pulled and replaced with dentures was a commonplace right of passage as people reached their fifties. That kind of boggles me. But accounts for all the cartoons with dentures in the glass by the bedside, which is not so much the case anymore. A full set of dentures is not the obvious solution to dental care these days.

It was not uncommon for carriers to ditch their mail instead of delivering it.

Try that now and they'd get caught on camera.

Corollary: Reading a British author's memoir recently he made note that having all your teeth pulled and replaced with dentures was a commonplace right of passage as people reached their fifties.

This was fairly common in my parent's generation (and on my mother's side), at least. Most of my aunts haven't had their own teeth for a dog's age.

Smonster, I don't know if you'll be proud or think I'm the Shallowest Environmentalist ever, but I think about that so much more since I've been crushing on Adrian Grenier. I really do care about ecology, but it's easier to stick to if you can pretend that someone will think you're sexier if you only use the one paper towel.(apparently he nags the guys on Entourage about this with comic frequency...supposedly they actually have one of the greener sets...yellow Hummer aside.)

Try that now and they'd get caught on camera.

That might not get you in trouble in England, though.

Even in the US Postal system I remember an instance where two managers at different P.O.'s were married and kept up a long running scam stealing money on stamp sales by borrowing stamps from each other to meet audits. They stole thousands over many years and neiher one was fired after they were caught.

Interesting article in Wired about Good Enough Tech.

This was fairly common in my parent's generation (and on my mother's side), at least.

Is that the Canadian side? Because I can imagine they'd be British-ish culturally.

This was fairly common in my parent's generation

My maternal grandparents had it done at about age 50 as a routine procedure (their birth dates were about 1895).

Is that the Canadian side? Because I can imagine they'd be British-ish culturally.

There is no single Canadian side. Both my parents are Canadian. They met in Vancouver while Mother was at Royal Columbian and Dad was at UBC. Blind date. True facts!

Mother's side was the more rural of the two, though. Dad's family moved back and forth between Vancouver Island and Vancouver. They were at least acquainted with running water and indoor plumbing. And, quite possibly, dentists. I'd have to ask Dad about that.

Aww, heck, erika, I'm proud. Don't really care what gets you there, as long as you get there. *g* (Adrian - tiny, tiny check is in the mail)