At last, the stupid box started to do something useful. Yesterday my son and I decided we're not waiting any longer, and checking what's happening at the bottom of the rotting pile. To our surprise, it did contain compost. I was only brave enough to extract one bucket, but I think there's more in there. The compost is black, moist, lumpy, and almost odorless. There are some occasional twigs and chunks of wood in it, but it's mostly smooth. There was even an educational moment there, as we found an "unprocessed" candy wrapper made of plastic. I spread some of the stuff over the flower beds, but it doesn't look as natural as in US/European gardening sites: their soil is black, while ours is brown. But it'll all mix in the long run. Today I'm gonna dig for some more of that black treasure. We're also going to Haniel to rack up some dry leaves. We don't want the top of the box to become too green :)
Stopped by the local composter shop and talked to the sales lady. "What's the deal?", I said, "why doesn't the green stuff turn into compost, and just stays there refusing to rot away?". She wrinkled her pretty forehead and proclaimed: "Dry stuff! You don't have enough dry stuff inside". What's dry stuff? Dry leaves. Ain't got no dry leaves, everything is green and moist. Newspapers. I don't subscribe to those. Will sawdust do okay? Probably. My composter just consumed a huge sack of sawdust. Let's hope it works the compost magic. I'm getting tired of this over-sized Petri dish.
SCOT-FREE, expr.
Free of work or discipline, not asked to pay. The expression scot free derives from a medieval municipal tax levied in proportional shares on inhabitants, often for poor relief. This tax was called a scot, as an abbreviation of the full term scot and lot, where scot was the sum to be paid and lot was one’s allotted share. So somebody who avoided paying his share of the town’s expenses for some reason got off scot free. (e.g. "You think you can murder someone and walk away scot-free?" - Desperate Housewives, S06E10).
Audio-reading "Rich man, poor man" by Irwin Shaw. At some point Boylan appears by Rudolph, wearing this and that, and "without a hat". It means that it was unusual for a person to appear outdoors without his hat on. I don't know anyone who wears a hat today, unless he's going to the beach, or hiking. Reminds me of a recent post by Avva (every single person in the picture from 1917 wears a hat).
Strauss Group, the maker of the very popular instant chocolate drink, Chocolit, has suffered a blow in court earlier this year. The plaintiff, Roei Croitero, who had been the redheaded boy on Chocolit's logo for years, demanded that the manufacturer should stop using the image immediately. Strauss Group protested, saying that they owned the rights to the image, and can use it any way they wanted. Croitero (now in his early 20s), claimed there was no such agreement that gave Strauss unlimited rights to publish his photo on the product. The prolonged use of the logo had caused him negative publicity, he had suffered ridicule and name-calling from his peers, and the whole "choco" affair had to end. Lucky for Croitero, the court ruled in his favor, and ordered Strauss to take the picture down. Strauss, whose whole ad campaign is based on the recognizable picture, had to make a last moment fix. Here's the result, as we witnessed after coming back from the supermarket last Friday. Old package on the right, new package on the left.
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
