Grist: Yolanda Crous

The KABMAN Game

Yolanda Crous — Thu, 03 May 2007 03:11:22 +0000

Last week, David Roberts brought you the Keep America Beautiful Man videos. This week, I bring you … KABMAN, THE GAME.

I came, I saw, and I collected 40 recyclable items on my second try. Top that, Gristiacs.

John Travolta’s private plane fetish brings the noise to a small Maine community

Yolanda Crous — Thu, 03 May 2007 00:47:27 +0000

Oh, John Travolta. When will you and your planes stop p$#@ing off the populace?

Apparently it’s not enough for Mr. Saturday-Night-Give-the-Planet-a-Fever to wander the globe in his private planes, trailing an excess of carbon emissions in his wake. He’s also got to land his plane near his Maine residence during the area’s voluntary no-fly period between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Come on, John. It’s bad enough that you’re contributing to warming the planet. Now you’re going to keep granny awake in the process? For shame, Vinnie Barbarino, for shame.

Hell hath no fury like a Lohan scorned

Yolanda Crous — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 20:50:11 +0000

On the list of most environmentally unfriendly ways to avenge yourself on an ex-boyfriend, leaving the water in your tub running so it can flood your former squeeze’s apartment sits pretty close to the top. But punishment-by-excessive-water-use is exactly what Lindsay Lohan allegedly wrought on Harry Morton last month.

This, from TMZ.com:

Lohan lives one floor above Harry Morton, son of Las Vegas mogul Peter Morton, who just sold the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Lindsay and Harry were once an item. Last month, Lindsay’s condo flooded, sending water cascading into her ex’s unit and causing extensive damage.
Contrary to published reports, the culprit was not a faulty pipe. According to the incident report, security officers at Sierra Towers went to Lindsay’s unit, walked into the master bathroom, “and found the water overflowing in the bathtub.” The security officer humbly wrote, “It seems that they left the faucet on. I turned it off.”

TMZ sources say Morton’s damage exceeded $150,000, and Morton wants Lohan to cough it up.

Whatever happened to a little good old-fashioned vase throwing?

Bib you hear the one about … ?

Yolanda Crous — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 07:14:31 +0000

The number one craze in Hollywood — babies. The number two craze — using your baby to show off your eco-grooviness.

According to the folks at Ecorazzi, OopC bibs, made from 100 percent organic cotton, are flying off the shelves and into the homes of such glitter-mamas as Gwyneth Paltrow and Tori Spelling. But, as the site rightly points out, buying a few organic bibs does not a true green celeb make:

One new Hollywood grandma who must rename nameless ordered 56 OOPCs — that’s nine for each of her six homes …

Six homes?! Grandma’s lucky she chose to remain nameless as we would be quick to blast such excess. Granted, buying 56 organic bibs is a step in the right direction.

I don’t know. In my opinion, the only way buying 56 bibs is a step in the right direction is if 52 of them are being donated to some kind of mothers-in-need program.

But, hey, let me give Hollywood Grandma the benefit of the doubt. She could just be trying to help create an economy of scale for organic baby products.

This model is no longer untouchable

Yolanda Crous — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 21:08:58 +0000

During college, I went through an ill-advised phase during which I tacked photos of supermodels I was never, ever going to look like on my dorm-room walls. One of my twiggy idols was Shalom Harlow, whom I loved because she a) really knew how to work the red lipstick and b) seemed like the least approachable person on the planet.

No longer. This year, not only did she show up on the cover of Domino‘s Green Issue, she also (as Amanda Griscom Little reported) popped up at the Sundance Channel’s Green Party, spouting nuggets of folksy green wisdom, like this one:

We have a flushing system at our house where we only flush if it’s number two.

Goodbye untouchable supermodel. Hellloooooo, environmentally astute woman of the people!

The latest attempt to make learning about the environment fun is … not fun

Yolanda Crous — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 04:19:42 +0000

Starbucks and Global Green USA have teamed up to put together a new online game called Planet Green. The objective: Travel around a small town called Evergreen (Get it? Ever … green … ha!) looking for ways to save on CO2 emissions.

The game reminds me of something that might be produced to teach small children about the dangers of sexual predators or crossing the street in heavy traffic. Well-intentioned, yes. A whole lotta fun? Heck to the no.

The problem, methinks, is that the game gives you almost no control over your own destiny. Any time you get to make the teensiest choice about where to go or what to do, you’re interrupted by an exceedingly long message about saving energy or global warming. Yes, I know that’s the point, but the point could be made in a way that is not so yawn-inducing that even I, a staunch member of the green team, felt the need to click over to EW.com to read an article on The Apprentice instead of saving the town of Evergreen from its environmental sins. Yes, folks, reading about Donald Trump’s moribund reality show is more fun than playing this game.

But … um, check it out anyway!

Berkeley students vote on a new sustainability fund

Yolanda Crous — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 01:40:30 +0000

Tomorrow through Friday, UC Berkeley students will vote “yay” or “nay” on TGIF (aka the Green Initiative Fund), a $5 increase in their per-semester fees that will be used to finance “initiatives on renewable energy, energy efficiency, resource conservation, and ‘green’ student internships.”

Last year, UC Santa Barbara (my school, fools) passed TGIF. Now Berkeley folks are playing catch up with this incredibly slick online campaign. Most compelling statistic: UC Berkeley uses as much electricity as Cambodia.

Video below the fold.

Our prez nearly made a slip of the plug

Yolanda Crous — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 20:12:24 +0000

The funniest news lede I’ve read in a long time:

Credit Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally with saving the leader of the free world from self-immolation.

Apparently, our befuddled prez was about to stick an electrical plug into the hydrogen tank of a Ford hydrogen-electric plug-in hybrid. This act, if completed, would have generated Hindenburg-esque bad publicity and probably made Cheney our next president. (Eep!)

To make the save, Mulally apparently “violated all the protocols,” grabbing the president’s arm and steering him away from the plug.

Maybe that’s exactly what Bush needs: someone who’s not afraid to step in to steer him away from stuff that’s eventually going to blow up in his — and our — face.

Wonder if Mulally would accept a pay cut …

How many washed-up reality stars does it take to screw the environment?

Yolanda Crous — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 13:26:27 +0000

According to Ecorazzi, Kelly Osbourne became a mite confused last Thursday night en route to a party for Dita von Teese. Said party was being held at the same venue as Elle magazine’s “Green Bash,” and the Spawn O’ Ozzy ended up on the wrong red carpet.

Her reaction when she realized her mistake? “Screw the environment.”

Get in line, Kelly. Get in line.

Sea-dweller stops McConaughey in his tracks

Yolanda Crous — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 01:16:27 +0000

The recent discovery of Irukundi jellyfish off the coast of Fraser Island, Australia, has stopped production of Fool’s Gold, a sure-to-be-Oscar-contender starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. The teensy-tiny toxic creatures (“no larger than a thumbnail”) are usually found only in northern Queensland, but — you guessed it — warming temperatures seem to be pushing the deadly (and we mean deadly) critters south.

The upside: Now that global warming has deprived the world of the wacky romantic-comedy stylings of Matt and Kate for a few whole days, maybe the administration will finally have the motivation it needs to do something about global warming.

Yeah. And maybe Matthew McConaughey will finally go a whole day without taking his shirt off in public.