The Best Tweet Ever
The next renaissance of human culture will be the reconstruction of our natural world in our cities. Plants will be at the center of it all. — Thomas Rainer (@ThomasRainerDC) November 17, 2014 In...
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Three lessons about life
I’m home with a cold while Erik is off getting himself all worked into a tizzy at the state beekeeping convention. In my couch-potato-ing, I ran across this delicate piece of wisdom while watching a...
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Be Idle!
Black Friday, a day celebrated in the US with an orgy of consumerism and deadly Walmart stampedes, seems like a good day to repeat the Idler’s Freedom Manifesto. Named for a series of essays by Samuel...
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Talking About the Weather
We have an informal rule around the Root Simple offices: never talk about the weather. Why? Most of our readers are not local and the weather here in Los Angeles is boring and predictable. Usually...
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An Early Resolution
Last night I wrote a rant against disposable coffee cups, aka to-go cups. I didn’t post it this morning because I didn’t feel good about it. It was too negative, and worse, I was projecting. My rant...
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A Last Minute Gift Suggestion . . .
In a moment both surreal and ego boosting, I opened some junk email to discover that Amazon is suggesting that I buy our own books, The Urban Homestead and Making It, as Christmas gifts. It also...
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Seeds the Game
Nick Heyming, who I met through his work at Growcology, is working on a kind of alternative to games like Farmville. Instead of pointless hours staring at a screen, SEEDS the Game’s goal is to get you...
View ArticleLet’s Talk About the Holidays
Christmas in Bulgaria by Miroslav Trendafilov. There’s no doubt that the materialism of the Christmas season in the US presents challenges to folks who are on the radical homemaking path. One action...
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030 Christmas Eve Podcast
With Kelly off visiting family, I’ve put together a short and simple podcast this week. I read my blog post, Let’s Talk About the Holidays and the reader comments. I conclude with, of course, some...
View ArticleIn case you were wondering . . .
. . . how we celebrate Christmas. The horse gets to come in the house. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all. Thanks to Kendra for the tip.
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2014, a Year in Comments: Plant Thievery, Loquats, Breakfast Cerial and the...
Scene of the crime. Our missing cactus. One of the reasons I prefer blogging to writing books is feedback in the form of comments. The subject matter we write about attracts thoughtful and...
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2014: The Year in Review
Randy Fritz and a new crop of Angelino shoe makers. In many ways it was a challenging year for us. I have not spoken about this on the blog, but my elderly mom faced a significant health crisis in the...
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2015 Resolutions
It’s time for the annual confessional: did we stick to our resolutions from last year? And in this same post we’ll state our 2015 goals for the record, so we can take this same walk of shame next year....
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Local Politician Tom LaBonge Wants LA Covered in Astroturf and the City to...
Our local utility is offering residents a sizable rebate to remove lawns and replace them with less water intensive plantings and mulch. This makes long term sense in what appears to be a permanent,...
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An indispensible urban tool: the titanium spork
One of my best allies in my effort to cut down on my use of disposables is a titanium spork. It’s strong, pleasant to use, and weighs virtually nothing. I bought it many years ago in preparation for...
View ArticleNew is the New Old
Does this brilliant short film mean that I can use my monocle to check my Facebook wall?
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Will 3D Printing Save Us From Bad Garden Sculpture?
In the annals of bad taste there’s nothing quite like contemporary garden sculpture. We’ve ranted about this before. Leaf through the infamous and (mercifully) soon to be extinct Skymall catalog and...
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Leisure The Basis of Culture
Brueghel left out the mobile device. Lately, I’ve been pondering that horrible state of mind that happens when I turn on a computer. You all know the story. You check your email. Then Facebook. You...
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Nextdoor: Monetizing Your Neighbors
How would you like to work for free? And while you’re working for free, let’s say that your boss deliberately orchestrates a state of mind of anger, distraction, idle chatter and gossip (see our post...
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Back to the Garden
Livre de chasse, ca 1407 [This is the first post in a new series.] Lately I have been thinking about that old Joni Mitchell song, Woodstock, where she says: We are stardust We are golden And we’ve got...
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