Morning links: Lawn outlaws, poop bags and more
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Lawn-busters: Last week, we linked to a KTLA report on a couple in Orange facing fines for ripping out their lawn, replacing it with low-water plants and wood chips and defying a city ordinance that required at least 40% of their frontyard to be landscaped with live plants. Amina Khan has some additional details in the case. My favorite line in the article is the last:
Meanwhile, the couple said they had reduced their water usage from 299,221 gallons in 2007 to 58,348 gallons in 2009.
Human poop bags: Buried in the New York Times on Tuesday is a story about a single-use bag ‘toilet’ containing urea crystals that turns feces into pathogen-free fertilizer. The invention holds much potential in developing countries. The bag is called the Peepoo, and it’s made by the Peepoople. Stop giggling.
Parenting: Sandy Banks’ column on Tuesday recounts her experience as the official word pronouncer of the Los Angeles County Regional Spelling Bee. Writes Banks:
One mother challenged my rendition of a Japanese word misspelled by her son. I said koh-en rather than koh-ahn, she said. One means park, the other is a paradox used in Zen Buddhism meditation. Later, a father leapt from his front-row seat to protest a procedural point, launching a minor imbroglio. The parents were polite but vibrating from accumulated angst. And the experience left me shaken a bit, wondering whether we overzealous parents are warping our dutiful kids.
The Times is expanding its coverage of modern parenting and family-life issues. Here’s a quick look at some recent articles by other columnists.
-- Craig Nakano
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