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Category Archives: Consumer Issues
Make Yours Well-Done
Not surprisingly, what goes around, comes around. Our factory-farmed cows, pigs and chickens, stuffed with antibiotics, are reeking with drug-resistant staph bacteria.
Cook it well, wash your hands, and keep the kid’s hands off it. Wipe your countertops and pay attention to what goes where. You’ll be okay.
The longer view is to eat less, and better meat. To support local farmers and phase out the factory farms. And maybe give some CPR to public health, so that greedy, short-sighted speculators will not be allowed to squander what were once life-saving drugs so that they can raise animals in conditions that would normally kill them.
I’m descended from Celts, and my Barbarian ancestors tell me that Rome wasn’t demolished in a day. We won’t re-organize our agriculture from central to local overnight, but my Yankee ancestors say that it never hurts to keep a few chickens in the back yard just in case.
Let’s All Go Back to Using Baby Shampoo and Lotion
The Environment Minister of Denmark has created legislation to ban certain chemicals which are believed to cause disruption to the endocrine system. A small blurb here — there will likely be more news about this once it hits the mainstream publications. It sounds like a good idea for anyone concerned about endocrine disruptors to try out using baby shampoo and lotion from Denmark, if they are able to make them propyl and butyl paraben-free — it may be a good way to reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals.
Buying Trouble Online
Last year I didn’t know what to get my brother for Christmas, so on about 12/24 I went online and ordered him some praying mantis. I thought no more about it until I got a call on my cell phone while I was at work. A guy with a Southern accent was trying to explain how the projected hatch date would depend on when he went out into the fields to gather egg cases. Something about the temperature.
I think it turned out okay, I’ll have to ask my brother.
Though I’m timid about sending my credit card number to the World Wide Web, I’ve never had a problem. In fact, phone calls like that show how tiny businesses have a chance to sell online, without the overhead. And no one locally has mantis in stock around Christmas.
It’s all good, I would say, but this New York Times story is truly frightening– a reminder that anyone can set up a spiffy-looking site for free…
SHOPPING online in late July, Clarabelle Rodriguez typed the name of her favorite eyeglass brand into Google’s search bar.
In moments, she found the perfect frames — made by a French company called Lafont — on a Web site that looked snazzy and stood at the top of the search results…
… her eyeglasses arrived two days later. But the frames appeared to be counterfeits and Ms. Rodriguez, a lifelong fan of Lafont, remembers that even the case seemed fake.Soon after, she discovered that DecorMyEyes had charged her $487 — or an extra $125. When she and Mr. Russo spoke again, she asked about the overcharge and said she would return the frames.
“What the hell am I supposed to do with these glasses?” she recalls Mr. Russo shouting. “I ordered them from France specifically for you!”
“I’m going to contact my credit card company,” she told him, “and dispute the charge.”
Until that moment, Mr. Russo was merely ornery. Now he erupted.
“Listen, bitch,” he fumed, according to Ms. Rodriguez. “I know your address. I’m one bridge over” — a reference, it turned out, to the company’s office in Brooklyn. Then, she said, he threatened to find her and commit an act of sexual violence too graphic to describe in a newspaper.
The rest of the article outlines how Russo, aka Vitaly Borker, used the Google search engine to advantage, the volume of complaints against Decor My Eyes sending him to the top of the list. Google was slow to take action, but the credit card company was worse, pretty much dodging any responsibility.
When reporter David Segal went to visit Decor My Eyes he found Vitaly Borker, eyeglass magnate, operating out of his apartment. Segal seemed almost charmed by Borker. He asked about Borker’s emails to Ms. Rodriguez…
I mention that sending that photo of her apartment building sounds kind of threatening.
Nothing but an image he copied off of the Web, from Google Earth, Mr. Borker says. He says he sent it to her only to underscore that when it came time to hire a process server to commence litigation, he’d find her. The “hand in fire” threat? Metaphorical, he says. Then again, he acknowledges with a sly grin, if Ms. Rodriguez thought that Tony Russo seemed a little scary, that was fine.
But in his telling of events, he is her victim, not the other way around.
“She’s a psycho,” he says, adding that she still has the glasses he sent her.
(Untrue, Ms. Rodriguez says.)
Despite the fear he has inspired, Mr. Borker doesn’t regard himself as a terror. He prefers to think of himself as the Howard Stern of online commerce — an outsize character prone to shocking utterances.
Except that Howard Stern doesn’t issue threats, I say.
“People overreact,” he pshaws, often because they’re unaccustomed to plain speaking, New York-style. Anyway, he adds, if somebody messes with you, and you mess back, “how is that a threat?”
Borker has a rap sheet for threats against other women.
This kind of behavior is called ‘stalking’– it’s a crime. Threatening to rape someone is a kind of hate crime. In all the coverage of Borker’s exploitation of Google and online marketing, that detail gets lost.
But for the moment, justice is done. Rodriguez and others had complained to the police, and after this article ran, Borker was arrested and charged.
He had been stalking several women, threatening rape and calling them at work and in the middle of the night. He had guns and ammunition in his apartment. The judge denied him bail. It’s discouraging that the personal crimes carry a far lower penalty than his dealing in counterfeit goods, but more so that the police were so slow to act until it made the papers. Details are here.
We’re Watching You
This is a little unsettling. It’s been going on for years, I’m sure, but I never noticed it till now.
I went on Google to look up remote control light switches– a slightly unusual piece of hardware. Now several sites I visit have flashy ads for them. Makes me glad that I never assumed my internet searches are private.
You can’t beat the net for putting out information in public. Being able to instantly publish my cranky opinions and talk back to the news is like candy. If I want privacy, I’ll send a letter.
That’s how I always operated, but the light switch thing is a reminder– your screen is watching you.
Save Those Coats
If you love crowds and standing in long lines while spending money on stuff you’re not sure will make anyone happy while listening to singing chipmunks, then don’t read this post. Go to the Provicence Place Mall the day after Thanksgiving.
But if you’re a dour curmudgeon, or just contrary, November 26 is Buy Nothing Day. Right across the street, on the State House lawn, is the 14th annual Winter Coat Exchange. (in case of rain, St. John’s Cathedral will host). Bring a coat you don’t need, or get one you do need. Link to the event is here.
There are other coat exchanges around town, I’ll list them as I find out about them.
Self Indulgence With Me Vida Local
Was it deliberate, or was it a happy accident that United BBQ opened across the street from the Silver Star Bakery?
Almost Heaven
Now with a short ride down Ives Street you can get barbecue and all the sides, collards, mac and cheese, and home-made potato chips. Then step across the street for pastry so pretty it’s almost a shame to eat it, but so reasonable you’ll buy two to share.
I love United, too, because they make a vegan barbecue sandwich that’s so good you don’t miss the meat.
- Hot and Sweet
Nothing against a box of Fanny Farmer and a Hallmark card, but I know what I’m getting for Valentine’s day.
As part of an ongoing post about local alternatives to the big chains (they know who they are), I’m running a list of great places to shop. These are all fresh, local and real Rhode Island small businesses. I’m just a little off on corporations, since the Supremes declared they are persons with a right to free speech. I’m not going to contribute to their political action fund anymore than I can help. It’s only pennies and I’m nobody, but our small business owners deserve our support.
Me Vida Local List–
Silver Star Bakery
United BBQ
Stamp Egg Farms
East Side Prescription Center
Yacht Club Soda
Mangiarelli’s Fruitlands
Four Mile River Farm
Save Your Money for Chocolates
If you want to put your man in the mood for romance and impress him with your feminine charm, consider some really good chocolates. Do not fall for products advertised on the internet that try to fix what ain’t broken.
In the tradition of drug companies that brew up all kinds of drugs that don’t do much and have to have diseases invented for them, the beauty/industrial complex has to make you feel really bad about yourself. Did you know that you have an infinite need to improve your ugly self? That your man will look at you with disgust and disdain when he finds out you’re the wrong color?
No, I’m not talking about race, (see Imitation of Life, 1959). I’m talking about your personal area. You need to dye it pink. It may be degrading to contemplate, and hurt, but feeling embarrassed about your body is the first step to becoming fun and sexy.
This writer may snark, but someone braver or maybe more foolish than I actually tried out the wonder product. Don’t open this post at work, because it’s vulgar.
I’m posting a link because it made me laugh out loud. That is good for my health and sexier than a stack of Cosmos, which we should laugh out of business anyway.
Slice Off Their Tax Exemption
Graduate student Cynthia Magnus found bags of clothes destroyed and trashed by H&M and Wal Mart.
“Gloves with the fingers cut off,” Ms. Magnus said, reciting the inventory of ruined items. “Warm socks. Cute patent leather Mary Jane school shoes, maybe for fourth graders, with the instep cut up with a scissor. Men’s jackets, slashed across the body and the arms. The puffy fiber fill was coming out in big white cotton balls.” The jackets were tagged $59, $79 and $129.
The Times reporter added that Wal-Mart’s clothes have also been found trashed:
It is winter. A third of the city is poor. And unworn clothing is being destroyed nightly.
I’ll bet any underpaid employee caught saving a pair of shoes from the wrecker so they give their child something for Christmas would be fired. There’s only one thing that can cause this kind of malignant stupidity. Greed. Enabled by tax laws that let them use and waste the Earth’s resources and the labor of underpaid workers and deduct it as a loss. Don’t think these two stores are the only ones that do this kind of thing.
A pox on them all. Let’s slice off their tax exemptions when they think it’s easier to throw merchandise away rather than take the trouble to donate or sell it elsewhere.
AND FURTHERMORE: the destroyed clothes were waiting to be picked up and sent to the landfill. As if NYC doesn’t have enough trash. How sad that when some of us ‘repair, reuse and recycle’ and Rhode Island has an exchange so that people can find someone who wants their old radio or whatever ( I got rid of 2 aquarium tanks that way), a big corporation can turn brand new clothes into garbage just so they can ensure that no one will wear them for free. Scabies on all your houses, all you superstores.
My New Years Resolution is to lose weight and fit into my old clothes.
UPDATE: Public shaming via what’s left of the free press has spurred H&M to promise that they will stop vandalizing and discarding their unsold clothing.
Educate Yourself to Protect Your Body: Personal Care Products May Contain Toxins
Since 2004 the Environmental Working Group (EWG) launched Skin Deep, an online safety guide for cosmetics and personal care products. The aim was to fill in where companies and the government leave off: companies are allowed to use almost any ingredient they wish, and our government doesn’t require companies to test products for safety before they’re sold.
EWG’s scientists built Skin Deep to be a one-of-a-kind resource. Take your shampoo or your child’s lip gloss or moisturizer and read more about the danger here: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/. Our epidermis is the largest body organ and approximately 60% of what we put on our bodies is absorbing these toxic ingredients. Those who know me know that I am committed to researching and sharing information about potentially harmful facts. We all are trying to attain a healthy lifestyle and yet, we daily sabotage our bodies (through hair, hygiene, and skincare products) with carcinogens so monstrous they are literally harming our future abilities to procreate, fight off cancers and the like.
It is sickening that the Personal Care Industry is undermining our abilities to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Cancer has become a common affliction or fatality and will further continue to rise. Science reflects that toxins sit in the fatty cells of our bodies (i.e., breasts). Water, food, air, materials and personal care products all have toxins and this is completely unacceptable when you do the math and see how a combination has violated the EPA and FDA acceptable toxin limits.
I plan to update the blog with information to aid you in making better choices. In doing so, I am hopeful to you will see the damage that is being done and make a lifestyle change. For now, here are some facts to ponder.
U.S. President Barack Obama started to take action and recognizing that toxic chemicals exist in most of our skin care products and are penetrating our skin and causing cancer and reproductive problems. He stated that he wants to change the current laws in order for the government to start properly assessing the chemicals that go in our products and not allow any that have risk associated with them, and he’s not meaning tweaking ~ rather, a complete overhaul.
Currently 1,100 toxic ingredients which are banned in Europe but we allow them here. I have studied toxins for years and I am sick to death of what has only been available to my children.
Cancer is amongst us, therefore you must ask yourself… can we really be sure of the toxins we have been absorbing through our skin, and that they have no inpact on our other means of ingestion such as food, air and vaccines/medicines? Work with me and let us remove one of the straws from the camels back, and alter the equation to a lesser number.
December 1, 2009 in Barrington, Rhode Island ~ 15 year old Ava Anderson teamed up with her mother, Kim Anderson and they launched a first of its kind “Ava Anderson Non-Toxic” product line (http://www.avaandersonnontoxic.com/). Ava read this article last year (http://www.ewg.org/reports/teens) and was driven to find an answer as to the toxic potions available and make them truly “free” of such harmful ingredients. Recently, Ava was asked to go before Congress and testify, and further plead for the Cosmetic Industry to change in support of President Obama suggested legislation in September 2009. For now, I would just like the opportunity to inform people as I feel “Knowledge is power, and Power is Knowledge”, and our children depend on us to make wise choices. I pledge to you that this is about a toxic message, which you need to unravel. Please take one minute to look at some of your products.
Be well, Suzanne Arena
