Department of Sanitation slang:

airmail n: trash thrown at the truck from a high window (“Incoming! We’ve got some airmail being delivered.”)

body bags/sausage bags n: 120-gallon garbage bags popular in big apartment complexes with compactors (“Get ready for some heavy lifting—we’re picking up sausage bags next.”)

chart adj: scheduled to have the day off (“No salad wagon for me Wednesday, I’m chart.”)

disco rice n: maggots (“The disco rice in that turkey carcass are moving like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.”)

57 n: the sign-in, sign-out sheet (“Don’t forget the 57 before you leave for the day.”)

fruit wagon/salad wagon/white elephant n: garbage truck (“It’s just another day riding the ol’ salad wagon.”)

get it up v: to remove the trash from the street (“Joey’s been on the fruit wagon for years, so he can really get it up.”)

hopper juice n: the bilelike substance that pools in the bottom of the truck’s collection bin (“It’s your turn to clean out the hopper juice.”)

mongo n: salvageable garbage (“Don’t chuck that table, it’s mongo—I can use it in my living room.”)

out of town adj: term used when an employee is sent to work at a garage other than the one he or she is normally assigned to (“I’m going out of town Wednesday, a garage in Queens is one man short.”)

stroke the book v: to calculate payroll (“Don’t bother the superintendent right now, he’s stroking the book.”)

urban whitefish n: a used condom floating in the water (“Man, people have been getting lucky this week; there’s another urban whitefish on the loose.”)

walk backwards v: to work very slowly (“Pick up the pace, yo; you’re walking backwards.”)

From Time Out New York

Average price of coffee at Bodega – $.50
Average price of coffee at Starbucks – $3.95

The tenderness of the delicate American buttock is causing more environmental devastation than the country’s love of gas-guzzling cars, fast food or McMansions, according to green campaigners. At fault, they say, is the US public’s insistence on extra-soft, quilted and multi-ply products when they use the bathroom.

“This is a product that we use for less than three seconds and the ecological consequences of manufacturing it from trees is enormous,” said Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defence Council.

“Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age. Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution.” Making toilet paper has a significant impact because of chemicals used in pulp manufacture and cutting down forests.

More than 98% of the toilet roll sold in America comes from virgin forests, said Hershkowitz. In Europe and Latin America, up to 40% of toilet paper comes from recycled products.

Paper manufacturers such as Kimberly-Clark have identified luxury brands such as three-ply tissues or tissues infused with hand lotion as the fastest-growing market share in a highly competitive industry. Its latest television advertisements show a woman caressing tissue infused with hand lotion.

The New York Times reported a 40% rise in sales of luxury brands of toilet paper in 2008. Paper companies are anxious to keep those percentages up, even as the recession bites. And Reuters reported that Kimberly-Clark spent $25m in its third quarter on advertising to persuade Americans against trusting their bottoms to cheaper brands.

Dave Dixon, a company spokesman, said toilet paper and tissue from recycled fibre had been on the market for years. If Americans wanted to buy them, they could.

“For bath tissue Americans in particular like the softness and strength that virgin fibres provides,” Dixon said. “It’s the quality and softness the consumers in America have come to expect.”

Americans already consume vastly more paper than any other country — about three times more per person than the average European, and 100 times more than the average person in China.

From “American taste for soft toilet roll ‘worse than driving Hummers’” by Suzanne Goldenberg, published February 26, 2009 at The Guardian.

211 books read, 566 magazines skimmed, 894 newspapers perused.

Top 25 Girls’ Names of 2008

1. Isabella
2. Ava
3. Emily
4. Elizabeth
5. Abigail
6. Madison
7. Emma
8. Addison
9. Madeline
10. Olivia
11. Chloe
12. Hannah
13. Sarah
14. Sophia
15. Avery
16. Riley
17. Jessica
18. Hailey
19. Ashley
20. Samantha
21. Makayla
22. Arianna
23. Mia
24. Mackenzie
25. Nicole

From Parents.com

To grow the best snacks on earth, Frito-Lay strives to help protect the earth. That’s why, since 1999, Frito-Lay has reduced its use of water by 39%, natural gas by 30%, and electricity by 22% for each bag of snacks the company makes. Frito-Lay also have dedicated Green Teams at all of its manufacturing facilities who are focused on finding ways to optimize operations and reduce consumption of resources. And by making change to overall facilities and fleet, Frito-Lay was able to prevent over 96 million pounds of CO2 emissions from reaching the atmosphere last year.

From Frito-Lay

Animal Care & Control of New York City (AC&C) always has a large selection of healthy, loving dogs, cats, puppies, kittens and rabbits available for adoption. They are eagerly waiting for you to take them home so they can get started bringing love and joy to you and your family. AC&C is the largest pet organization in the North East, with an estimated number of 44,000 animals rescued each year. As a not-for-profit organization since 1995, Animal Care & Control has been responsible for New York City’s municipal shelter system, rescuing, caring for, and finding loving homes for homeless and abandoned animals in New York City. AC&C facilities operate in all five boroughs.

Go to the AC&C website to search for a new pet.