13015 Larchmere Blvd.
Shaker Hts., OH 44120
216.795.9800
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SOLAR Monday, July 28, 2008
Harriett
Erika made the paper again with a solar project-in-process (something photogenic about photovoltaics). What the article doesn't cover is how difficult building departments and the now-defunct Ohio residential renewable energy rebate program have been. Not to mention homeowners wanting to play contractors. But, more solar is good news, however it happens to happen.
PEACE DAY Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Harriett
Memorial Day is Peace Day at my household, and we hold a Peace Party celebration for friends and neighbors. I'm exhausted from cleaning and cooking, but in a good woozy-tired kind of way. Just learned that the International Day of Peace, September 21, has made headway with major calendar publishers and will be included on most 2009 calendars. That's cool. Paz.
WORDS AND TAXES Thursday, May 8, 2008
Harriett
Scavenger. Sure, it's an easy word. Everyone's been on a scavenger hunt as a kid, and we know about trash scavengers who take away useful but unwanted large objects (like furniture, appliances and electronics) from the tree lawns on trash day for either personal use or resale (my thanks to their recycling efforts). But the word has some interesting roots, and in light on my rant on Amazon suing NY state over sales tax issues (see blog entry for May 1, 2008), I thought I'd share this one. Maybe what we need is a scavage tax.
Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day: May 8
scavenger \SKAV-un-jer\ noun
Meaning
1 : chiefly British : a person employed to remove dirt and refuse from streets
2 : one who collects or salvages garbage or junk
3 : an organism that typically feeds on refuse or carrion
Example Sentence
Scavengers took the broken lamp that I left on the curb last night.
Did you know?
You might guess that “scavenger” is a derivative of “scavenge,” but the reverse is actually true; “scavenger” is the older word, first appearing in English in 1530, and the back-formation “scavenge” came into English in the mid-17th century. “Scavenger” is an alteration of the earlier “scavager,” itself from Anglo-French “scawageour,” meaning “collector of scavage.” In medieval times, “scavage” was a tax levied by towns and cities on goods put up for sale by nonresidents, in order to provide resident merchants with a competitive advantage. The officers in charge of collecting this tax were later made responsible for keeping streets clean, and that’s how “scavenger” came to refer to a public sanitation employee in Great Britain before acquiring its current sense referring to a person who salvages discarded items.
SAVE THE EARTH, BUY A T-SHIRTTuesday, April 22, 2008
Harriett
Happy Earth Day. Celebrations are happening all month around the globe to commemorate, educate, and fund-raise for environmental concerns. Last Sunday was the Earth Day Coalition's EarthFest at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo; next Sunday brings Party for the Planet at the Akron Zoo.
There are also events like Scarlet, Gray, Green, Northcoast Nature Festival, Rain barrel Workshops, Ohio Renewable Energy Showcase, EcoCity World Summit, Green Expo, and The Green Dream created by Beachwood High School students.
In the book world, Penguin Classics has embraced the Plant a Billion Trees project, Book Sense is developing green retailing strategies, and publishers like Chelsea Green lead the way both in information and production methods.
But we've got a long way to go if we're really going to make an environmental impact. For starters, the federal government could stop subsidizing oil and encourage more renewable energy programs. Our businesses need to consider their environmental impact and waste streams. And individuals need to be mindful of their own energy usage and carbon footprint. So, if you go to a green festival, go ahead and buy your organic cotton t-shirt with soy-based inks, but be sure it's locally produced, and don't forget to buy a compact fluorescent bulb or some other small thing to help reduce your energy load, not just to add to your consumerism.
Yeah, this Saturday, Larchmere joins the bandwagon. At Loganberry we'll have signage around the shop of small measures that can make an impact, and we'll be offering a 10% discount to anyone who arrives by foot, bike or RTA. We'll have books to help guide your environmental choices, and we'll have some sales. On used books, of course.
OHIO DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Thursday, March 27, 2008
Harriett
With a one week warning to pending applicants, the Ohio Department of Energy has ended its residential grant program for solar and small wind projects. What does this mean? This means that the state of Ohio, which collects a 9-cent monthly assessment on every electric bill, is making this money available only to commercial and large scale projects and is cutting the small residential projects out of the loop. In other words, residents pay into this fund, but can no longer access it. It also means that the renewable energy installers who work in this state can be out of business by the time the state decides to change this policy. So, when this money is available once again (as surely it is legally required to be so), you won't be able to use it, anyway, because there'll be no one around qualified to install it. Does that strike you as ludicrous? Send an email to Sherry Hubbard at the Ohio Department of Energy and let her know what you think.
QUOTE OF THE DAY Monday, January 28, 2008
Harriett
As reported by the ABA from their Winter Institute, Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy, says:
"The big box store is just a machine for global warming."
A perfect distillation of the big picture in a small sentence.
DIVINE Monday, November 19, 2007
Brenda
Now is a good time to mention a product sold at Loganberry you may not have seen before. I'm referring to DIVINE CHOCOLATES. The bookstore proprietor has a sweet tooth, and when she discovered a particularly delicious chocolate bar produced by a fair-trade farmer-owned cooperative, she wanted to share the find, and ensure herself a continuous supply. So a small display box of Divine Chocolate bars, in milk or dark chocolate, appear on the checkout counter, and lucky customers often add one to their book and card selections. Now for the holidays we have an expanded line that includes after-dinner chocolate mints and big 3.5-ounce super bars. These are simply the BEST chocolate, and every stocking should have some. Certainly mine.
SOLAR
EXHAUST
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Harriett
Here's a recent photo of one of Erika's solar installations. It's a flat roof with lots of slightly-inclined PV panels in rows. But the humor in this photo is the view of the Ford plant in the background, spewing its evil emissions. Makes you wonder how much green energy it will take to even make a dent on this country's overall carbon footprint.
SOLAR
TOUR
Friday, October 5, 2007
Harriett
This weekend marks the 12th annual National Solar Tour, where you can drive around looking at renewable energy in action at homes and businesses near you. The national sponsor is ASES, and in Ohio the Tour is coordinated by Green Energy Ohio. I haven't seen any press on this year's tour, but GEO does have a rather cumbersome website, and that's probably the place to go for more information. Loganberry has a single PV panel that operates our exterior sign light, but that's too small potatoes to be included on this tour.
THORNLESS
HONEY LOCUST
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Harriett
Larchmere Boulevard is not lined with larch trees, but with thornless honey locust trees. They are attractive almost-wispy trees that can withstand bad soil, drought, huge temperature ranges, salt, AND they're fast growers. I don't know how many elm trees died here on Larchmere in the '80s, but I do know the cross-street North Moreland was hit hard with dutch elm disease, and these trees on Larchmere are quite young. They also have these fine little leaves, now turning golden yellow and falling to the sidewalks. I witnessed one of my neighbors sweeping the sidewalk and street and dutifully pushing all the little leaves directly into the storm sewer. I asked why he was clogging up the sewers, and he gave me that military "don't ask me, I'm just doing what I'm told" answer. Honestly....
ELLIE AND
HER ZENN
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Harriett
Ellie of Strong Bindery (here in the Loganberry building) got some cool local press about her all-electric car, the Zenn. The Sun Press put this groovy photo on the front page of their edition today, probably because Ellie and the Zenn look so good in color, especially with the blue Lower Shaker Lake in the background. ZENN stands for Zero Emissions, No Noise and lives up the the name. Although it's governed top speed is 25mph (it's not crash-rated for highway driving), it provides everything a local commuter needs. And in Ellie's case, the extra advertising earned from all the turning heads is probably worth the price of the car alone!
CHELSEA
GREEN
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Harriett
We love getting new books here. New, used, remaindered, antiquarian -- it doesn't matter, we do 'em all, and new acquisitions are new. Today the treasure troves are a dozen boxes of gorgeous remaindered books (mostly British art books with titles like The Art of Botanical Illustration and The Idea of Louis Sullivan).
We also got a decadent box of new, new books from Chelsea Green Publishing in Vermont. I try not to buy too many new books, since this is a used bookstore after all (you've heard about the competition), but some fields just demand it. Modern ecological studies and advances in renewable energy are such a field. Chelsea Green also publishes this groovy little set of four inexpensive handbooks that sum up our four basic ecological concerns: energy, water, recycling and composting. A perfect stocking stuffer kind of book, even in August. Meaningful, applicable sound bytes you can use.
SOLAR
POWER
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Harriett
Our friend Erika is in the news again. Renewable
Energy
has great popular and press appeal these days, but it's still a
fledgling
business. Thanks to the Free
Times for some publicity! Now to get some solar
panels in action... let's go, guys... it's awfully sunny
today
and I'm burning coal just to cool down (ridiculous, isn't it?).... REpower...
FLAT
TIRES
Monday, August 20, 2007
Harriett
Ever notice that car trouble always happens in bad weather? I thought, gee, I don't have to go anywhere on Sunday and I've got a good book (more on that tomorrow), so I'll deal with this flat tire tomorrow when it stops raining. When it stops raining?! Right, I forgot the heavens are trying to make up for the drought of July by raining through the entire month of August. Silly me.
Well, we're on the road to recovery now... but I got
lazy and
didn't bother to change the tire into its crummy (very crummy) spare
and
limp to the tire shop - no, I called Better
World Club (the enviro answer to AAA - they'll even help with your
bicycle) and got a tow. Seemed like a more efficient solution,
and
certainly easier for me.
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