How many and what kinds of reusable bags do you own?

Jumping on the trend of trying to be more environmentally conscious, I recently purchased a couple reusable bags; 

-         one with very nice patterns and could fake for a Hermes scarf (could I make a fashion statement with my shopping?),

-         one with a generic “save the environment” message undersigned store brand name,

-         one thin enough that you can fold into a wallet size that would fit in your front pocket,

-         a few large and sturdy enough to haul up to 70 lbs (carried my daughter and son in them for testing the claim, but they are really intended for Costco trips), and

-         one with dividers to carry wine from my favorite store (you also get a 10% discount off purchases as a side benefit).  

Despite my recent investments into the reusable bag space, I have yet to go totally reusable, nevertheless making progress.  My main issue is that I don't always plan in advance for when I will shop, what vehicle I will use, what dress I will wear for the occasion, etc - so there is always a chance that I don't have the relevant reusable bag with me for the particular shopping occasion.  To minimize this risk, I have been continuing to invest in reusable bags and place them in strategic places, such as in my car, in my wife's car, in my bike bag, in the front pocket of my favorite down coat - wherever I can, really.  I believe I will reach a critical mass of reusable bags when I accumulate about 20 bags or so that would cover most of my shopping occasions.

I feel a little nostalgic about reusable bags.  When I was a little kid, my grandmother used to take me to the local farmers market every week upon our return from visiting my grandfather’s cemetery.  I remember that everybody – including my grandmother - brought their own bag to the farmers market; some bags were sophisticated and they even had rollers, some were woven from left over yarn, some had a plastic but sturdy feel to them, and some were leftover from a shopping trip to a brand name store.  For those ladies who forgot to or did intentionally not bring a shopping bag along, their purses played the trick most of the time.  Can you imagine today somebody sticking potatoes and celery into a $2,000 Chloe handbag today?  About 30 years ago, women (at least the ones in Istanbul) did not seem to mind stuffing their bags with produce (they did not pay $2,000 for a bag either which is a different story that I will not get into).  One thing that always fascinated me was that you had a cadence to how you shopped so that your food made home with limited damage.  You would purchase the hard and sturdy foods first –such as potatoes-, and leave the more delicate ones for the last -such as tomatoes and strawberries.  Now I find myself obliged to separate any kind of vegetable from the other (why can’t avocados go in the same bag with green peppers?).

I wondered the other day, how many plastic bags I used throughout the year before I started my venture into the reusable bag world.  Roughly, we - a family of 4 - do about 3 trips to the grocery store a week and on average we leave with 4 bags, almost all double bagged.  That makes about 24 bags a week or 1,248 bags a year.  And this is just for groceries and does not take into account all the paper and plastic wrappers in the grocery bags and/or other shopping trips.  Imagine 1,248 bags – could I fit them all into my son’s room?  How many rooms would I need for my lifetime?  Would the size of an Olympic pool be enough?  How many pools would my friends in Facebook need over their lifetime?

This number surprised me and I started to do more back of the envelope calculations about my share of the environmental damage.  For the past two weeks, I typically took out 2 large kitchen bags a day of garbage.  This would suggest that my family produces over 14 bags of waste a week or 728 bags a year.  Imagine 728 large kitchen bags – could I fit them into our living room?  How many rooms would I need for my lifetime?  Would the size of a Football field be enough?  How many football fields would my friends in Facebook need over their lifetime?

Suddenly, I feel like I have a new year’s resolution that’s worth sticking to.  Are you with me?

Hasan Yardimci

Why are our kids smarter? Could it be due to proliferation of remote controls?

I am one of those guys who could not bring himself up to buying an expensive remote to aggregate all the remote controls he has around the house.  Just counted, 7 of those remotes (Plasma TV, DVR, cable box, DVD player, receiver, CD player) are used on a daily basis and majority of them are required even to accomplish a basic objective like watching a DVD.  

Hindsight, this was a blessing in disguise and $200 wisely not spent for another gadget.

My 4-year-old daughter has already figured out how to navigate through complex inputs and outputs to watch her favorite on demand shows, or preview our selected DVR recordings, or dance to her favorite tunes on the CD player.  The surprising thing is that she had no coaching (as I am opposed to her watching TV for more than 1/2 hr a day) as she pursued her dreams of independence for leveraging all the entertainment technologies around the house.  What makes this even more interesting is that she figured this whole complexity out before she turned 3 1/2 and not being able to read a word on her own.  Now she can easily switch the inputs into the plasma TV from HDMI to Component 1 or AV1 or change the receiver input from Video 1 to CD or AUX, or change the cable remote functionality from TV to Cable or vice versa. 

I am not trying to imply that my daughter is a genius - most her friends at her school are the same way.  In contrast to my daughter, my mother - who carries similar genes to my daughter, at least a quarter of the way and a rocket scientist in her own field of biochemistry - still does not get the idea that to switch from the DVD player to the DVR, she needs to change the video input on the Plasma from Component 1 to HDMI input.  For what I have observed, the only real difference is that my mother was born into a world with no remotes.

Now, I am a total believer that this added complexity increases the IQ levels of the new generation, and I will continue to support my daughter’s education by buying new gadgets that make life increasingly tough for basic tasks (e.g., PC) and refusing to buy ones that simplify life (Apple).

I will likely postpone my plans to get rid of everything non-Apple around the house as everything works without requiring much brainpower.  Maybe for my daughter’s benefit, I should ask her to do the next round of restoring the system on my PC which is required every couple of months so that the machine functions. 

Please, Steve Jobs - or other geniuses at Apple -, I beg you to not make life easier for us with your cool and intuitive gadgets, otherwise we will all be putting at risk the new generations' smarts.

Hasan Yardimci

Why would Chicago grow on anyone given such harsh winters?

For an outsider who has visited Chicago during below zero temperatures and muddy streets with left over snow - a high possibility if the outsider visits the city during winter - the city does not have much appeal especially after the salt on the streets that is intended to keep cars from skipping have ruined an expensive pair of shoes put on to impress the insiders during a night out in the city. It is very unfortunate that a large majority of visitors to Chicago have only seen this face of Chicago which may have created a general perception that Chicago is Gotham city - interestingly for the never-visited Chicago is Gotham city as portayed in the darkest Batman movie. 

However, the insiders know that the winters are only temporary, although there are more cold and gloomy days here in Chicago than sunny and warm days. The warm weather's best amenities are usually free and accessible to every body from rich to poor, healthy to sick, homeless to vagabond - adding new meaning to democracy the Greeks invented thousands years ago. To get the true spirit of this city, all it takes is a bike ride from Hyde Park to North Shore where you'll see all the beauties lake Michigan has to offer on your right and great buildings and parks on your left and different folks of life along the path from marathon trainers to moms strolling babies around to relieve the stresses of a colicky night.

I remember exactly the moment when I felt like an insider to this city. It was an unusually warm April day - about 8 months after I came to Chicago for my studies - almost summer like, I went for roller blading completing a round trip from Evanston to Hyde Park and back. This was a very long ride, but I did not want it to be over. The ride aroused feelings similar to when I was windsurfing in Aruba under high winds or skiing Park City's back bowl on heavy powder. Yes, this city is cold, and it can ruin your shoes, but over time you won't care. Once you get a taste of the lake shore and many others Chicago has to offer, like a good cold American beer at Wrigley, a nice glass of wine al fresco, down to earth people, diverse set of friends, cuisines, you will have more reasons to keep your spirits high when the weather churns you like ice cream. Keep it warm with memories of warm days for now until the sun shows up again in a few months.