Most folks think of Disney’s Mary Poppins as a sugary, over-the-top fantasy of a flying nanny. But I’ve long argued that this film is subversive movie making at its finest. In essence, magical nanny-of-the-ether Mary Poppins (played by the incomparable Julie Andrews) schools Mr. Banks, ahem, on the meaning of life, turning his “orderly” world upside down, and revealing to…
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Blog
Homemade Halloween
This essay originally appeared in the launch issue of Transition Voice, the online magazine I edit on peak oil, climate change, and economic crisis. One of my worst parenting memories happened when I took my daughters trick-or-treating on the vaunted Lawn of the University of Virginia campus one year. The girls were little at the time, and the picturesque associations…
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Recession sensitivity
The old days are gone and there’s more than a few analysts who don’t see the high life ever returning. They say that the peak of cheap oil production in 2006 means economic growth is over. Instead, we can expect a continual contraction of the economy that will ultimately affect us all. Whether its fate, or karma or just chance,…
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Revolutionary mess kit
Occupiers, revolutionaries and soup eaters of all stripes have been writing in to Lindsay’s List to tell me they love the idea of making, sharing and living on revolutionary soup as part of their commitment to the #OccupyWallStreet movement. But, they wonder, how do you serve up soup to a bunch of protesters without generating a lot of trash? No…
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Capturing embodied energy
Have you ever heard the term “embodied energy?” It refers to energy that has already been spent to create something. Take a box of cereal as an everyday example. Embodied energy is everywhere Inside the box there’s cereal. The embodied energy in the cereal contains everything from the sunlight and water (energy) that fed and made the grain grow, to…
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#OccupyWallStreet from home
I’ve received a number of queries from young moms and others who want to know what they can do to support the #OccupyWallStreet movement even though for logistical reasons — particularly having little kids —they can’t get to New York, D.C. or even a local event. The rising tide of sympathy for good old fashioned, red, white and blue American…
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