Sustainable Living Archives - Page 8 of 15

Dukes for a Better Hazzard

August 29, 2012November 16, 2010 by David Mark Brown

Daisy Duke was as close as I came to a celebrity fetish as a boy. How can you resist the NASCAR driving temptress that fashioned a short-short revolution that looks good on less than 1% of the population? (of which I am proud to say I am still a part.)

But Daisy, Bo and Luke Duke were more than just hunky characters on the TV show The Dukes of Hazzard from 1979 through 1985, they were champions of community, social justice, civil liberties and simple living. I can still hear Waylon Jennings crooning about the good ole’ boys “fightin’ the system like a true, modern-day Robin Hood,” as the General Lee leaps a barn and flies off into the wild, blue yonder of freedom.

Sure, Bo and Luke ran moonshine in a Dodge Charger done up six ways to Dixie while Uncle Jesse supplied a tri-county area with white lightning, but who doesn’t jerk some hooch on the side these days? The times are hard, are they not?

Officially Coming Out of the Shower

November 8, 2010 by David Mark Brown

Shower_Bath — A French soldier's shower contraption

A brave new exposé by The New York Times has revealed once and for all to the public that hygiene in America has gone completely OCD. Emboldened by the courage of the individuals who stood forward for the Times, I too am ready to be recognized as one of the “unshowered and unashamed.”

Reading the Times article one could be lead to believe that there are critical scientific reasons to forgo showering, washing your hair and wearing anti-persperant. But this is like admitting that you drink wine regularly for the health benefits – it totally negates the too coolio for schoolio factor. It makes the beautiful seem, well, dorky.

I need no edifice of scientific reasoning or lame-o excuses to do the right thing (preachiness intended.) Now that The New York Times as clumsily broached the issue, maybe the world is finally ready to hear the truth. The one you have all come to know and love as David Mark Brown showers no more than twice weekly, has not besmirched his body with anti-persperant since he was 13, and has only used soap for “the hairy parts” since 1996.

Appraisals, Home Sales and Green Lies

August 3, 2010 by David Mark Brown

800px-Mcmansion_under_construction — McMansion under construction by merfam

Remember when people where trending on such topics as “downsizing” and “simple living?” It seems like just yesterday. With untold McMansions listing in their weed-infested suburbs across the U.S. it would seem that the time was indeed ripe for reason to reenter our housing market and smaller footprints and more practical usage of square footage to be valued and rewarded. The only problem is that downsizing is easy to talk about and hard to do.

American’s love things big. As my wife and I have listed our 4 bed 3 bath, 1990 sq. ft. home in SLC for sale we have discovered that it is too small to demand top dollar (in our current crappy homes market). I thought such a home would be ideal for all the people who have been talking about downsizing from their 3,000 sq. ft. 3 bed and 3 bath houses. But, apparently there aren’t any such people. What there are, are people who are looking for their first home and finding that 2,000 sq. ft. just isn’t big enough.