(or): Straws suck!!!
I am waiting to get the last of the Inner View interviews back. Well, not the last one… I still have a few more to do… I am going to interview the hero of my action/adventure/comedy science fiction novels and some of the aliens from the books… and it is going to be awesome… but until I get the last interview done by a human in this dimension, I have a little time to kill… and a planet to save.
So you might remember this picture from our trip to the Bay Area for Christmas…
Yes, that is my little buddy, Willie, reading a copy of my book: I like Monkeys. And that is his mom, Eva. If you have been around for a while, you might remember the pictures from the wedding when out friend Big Johnny married Eva.
Anyway, Eva works with homeless people… no, not panhandling spare change… she works helping make their lives better. In fact, my daughter Mollie is going to work with Eva on that project my daughter started where she fills water bottles with little birthday gifts for homeless children so the idea can spread around the country.
But Eva has another passion. She does beach cleanups. She cleans up the beach… you remember, I showed you pictures… it is practically underneath the Golden Gate bridge. And she has one thing that she really gets worked up about. Plastic straws. Did you know that plastic straws are like the 6th or 7th… she told me, but I suck at numbers… most common form of trash found in the ocean. I imagine there are a lot of them on land too. Eva is the first militant drinking straw activist I have ever met… and I grew up in the Bay Area.
So guess what we just got in the mail? Metal straws. Yeah, that’s right. Eva told us about them. You carry them around with you, and when you go out to eat, you tell them not to give you a straw. I thought I was cool because I have my own cherry wood chopsticks. But this can help save the planet. We got a bunch of them to give to people. And I bet, if you go on-line, you can find out how to order them too.
Pouring My Art Out 
Sounds good. I bought my own chopsticks so the takeaway doesn’t need to give me any. Mainly because those cheap wooden ones they give away have splinters in them but I can say I am thinking of saving the trees.
Does the metal straw come in a carry case? I am just imagining a sticky mess in my pocket otherwise.
Isn’t it odd how most people cannot figure out how to use a rubbish bin? I live by the canal in London and everyone chucks their beer cans in it. There are bins everywhere – use them! It drives me mad the tourists litter my neighbourhood.
People are animals. You can climb any mountain and people have been there before you throwing away their trash.
Was just reading about all the plastic in the ocean, it’s pretty disgraceful of us
It is like we forget we are living in one big bubble of usable space.
What a terrific idea! I gave up using straws years ago because it seems like a waste of waste. Of course, just drinking out of a reusable bottle or glass makes the most sense to me.
It is hard to pour a drink into a bottle when you are eating out…
Especially if it is non-alcoholic!
Or if it is alcoholic and you have had 12 of them.
I have 4 glass straws because I also hate plastic straws. To me they are such a waste! I love drinking from a straw, but no more plastic for me!
Yay… and glass straws are only for scientists and cocaine addicts…
Hmmm, metal straws… they do take more energy to create than normal straws, though. So what really is better?
Well, one does, but how many straws does a person use in a lifetime. Willie will never use a plastic straw in his life. He might give the metal one to his grandkids.
I did some calcs… about 100 plastic straws for every metal one, at least from a carbon dioxide standpoint (greenhouse gases). Probably makes sense in the end to go metal.
100? You Canadian freaks! We use that many in one moth!
Drinking problems?
We invented throw away stuff made of plastic.
I love this idea. I will definitely be ordering metal straws. Not only will it help the environment, but it will keep those servers from thinking I’m to dumb to open my own straw wrapper and place my straw in the drink. What exactly do they think I’ll be doing with it anyway. I’m not drinking out of it after you touched it. I’m already risking my health by letting you bring my food to me.
I like it when they leave the little paper tip on the top like a condom…
Yea, the first time I saw that I was thinking…really? I know you still touched the bottom of my straw. You aren’t kidding anyone.
And your silverware, and food, and who knows what else.
I know. Every time the movie Waiting comes on, I swear I won’t go back to a restaurant…ever. I always forget though.
I am very nice to the people who work in them.
I am too. I remember working as a hostess and a server. It’s a tough job and not everyone can understand that. I try to make my time there worth their while so I always get good service. I love the snarky ones too…my witty banter knows no bounds. A good time is usually had by all.
I washed dishes in a few places when I was younger. I made it sort of fun.
🙂 You just have to try and you can make most..not all, but most situations enjoyable.
Right, just don’t break out into song in the middle of a funeral.
aw, why not? I was gonna go with another one bites the dust when my mom dies.
It is okay if that is what the dead person would have enjoyed.
Nope…not for me. I do things for me.
Well then just not at the funerals of people you aren’t related to maybe.
It’s probably best.
That’s all I’m saying.
I spelled middle wrong, went into the post, and edited the comment to make me look smarter.
nice, no one would have known…if you hadn’t just outed yourself right then.
Right… I always own up to my mistakes.
good for you, i don’t make any….hahaha, right.
sigh
People always react that way when I tell them that. Hmmm?
Ha.
Better yet, I could go online and figure out how to get you to mail me my own pair.
Are we talking about metal straws or feety jammies???
Both!
cool
I wish I would have known about them when my son was going through the phase when he swore he could not drink without a straw.
It was news to me too… but it is so obvious. We should stop making stuff you just throw away.
I agree. I looked and they have glass straws as well.
I think those are just for scientists and cocaine addicts… HA!!!
LOL. Probably.
Glass would sort of make me nervous.
metal might make things taste weird.
It doesn’t… they use the right kind of metal… if all metal did that, we couldn’t use forks or spoons… HA!
I think food does taste funny if you leave a metal spoon sitting it for too long.
Uh… maybe you need to buy better spoons… Just kidding. Maybe you have more sensitive taste buds than me. I wouldn’t be surprised.
My tastes buds are sensitive. That’s why I couldn’t do those games where you have to eat gross things for money. I would lose every time.
It is always funny watching the people that almost win, but somebody ate one more cockroach than them, and they get nothing.