"The works of a person that builds, begins immediately to decay; while those of him who plants, begins directly to improve." - William Shenstone More info on William Shenstone.

Quote via David Whitehead

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it."Mark Twain

"Having been unpopular in high school is not just cause for book publications." Fran Lebowitz

A tip of the hat to working novelist, John Baker.

Our Own Billy Jones - Discovery Channel Canada Subject

Budd's going to write more about this and post more pictures, but I just wanted to chime in and say how very proud we are of Billy Jones, who was interviewed at length by the Discovery Channel Canada's show Daily Planet today, riding his StreetPlane all around town.  I got to drive Billy's truck with the nice videographer, Ross MacIntosh, in the back with Budd, and the lovely producer, Lori Belanger, with me in the cab.  We had a great time, and Billy looked great on his StreetPlane, and got lots of looks and comments.  We even saw the A&T Drumline marching down Market Street - they sounded great, and the Discovery Channel Canada crew were duly impressed.  They were also very, very nice, and we enjoyed interacting with them very much

We're so proud of Billy because he truly is a Renaissance man.  Not only is he an inventor, an author, a poet, a humorist, but he's also a conservationist, an activist, a catalyst to help other people, and a hell of a nice guy to know, and very humble as well.  We are honored to be his friend.

Here he is, with the StreetPlane and our new banner:

 

I'm often surprised by the creativity I find online but more often what most people seem to think of as creativity is simply wearing the same ol' hat backwards. In this post I'll give you examples of both and you can decide which is which.

Urban Rustic is a New York City grocery store that only sells products that are shipped no more than 50 miles to the store. One of the store's founders was responsible for the documentary film, King Corn.

I would think a pooper scooper to be a far better choice than a SkooperBox for those of you who have pets and aren't lazy slobs. But hey, you decide if sending recycled paper to the landfill is a good use for paper that could be recycled again and again and again.

Indoor landscaping is cool but far out of the reach of most consumers and while rooftop gardens and green roofs are in, growing plants on the roofs of buildings goes back a few thousand years. Okay, so I did't let you decide.

I ride a motorized bicycle that gets 200 miles per gallon of regular gasoline but motorized bicycles go back over 100 years. Really great ideas last a long time.

In light of recent developments ThinkInteractive is a funny name for a company that advises its customers to use Facebook (watch the video.) By the way, Facebook has only become more dangerous in the last year. How is it that people can think of spying on citizens as being a creative use of technology?

Starbucks is selling used coffee grounds to gardeners. You'll probably want to add lime before you plant to adjust the Ph of the soil but make no doubt coffee grounds make for rich soils. Considering that my family has been recycling our own coffee and tea for the last 100 or more years I guess there really is nothing new under the sun.

Here's a tip: I use one of these to make a spot in the garden for our coffee, tea, fruit and vegetable scraps and when the hole is full I start another. The one I use once belonged to my grandpa and is far better than anything you can buy but that one will do. About 18-24 inches is as deep as you'll ever want to go.

“One ought only to write when one leaves a piece of one’s own flesh in the inkpot, each time one dips one’s pen." -Leo Tolstoy