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Articles by Ask Umbra®

The New York Times calls Umbra Fisk "a trailblazer in the field of eco-advice columnists" and "the arch online sage of the new green age." Her latest passion: kale smoothies ... no, sorry, civic engagement, because getting political is the only way we'll get a planet that doesn't burn and a future that doesn't suck. Ask Umbra a question here.

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  • Ask Umbra’s Book Club: The three L’s — laziness, learning, and lawlessness

    Dearest readers, I’ve so enjoyed reading all of your comments thus far about Dolly Freed’s Possum Living. The 9-to-5 grind, raising and slaughtering your own meat—stimulating threads. You know, I couldn’t help but notice how often Freed talks about the basis for her and her father’s lifestyle choice being that they are lazy. Tending a […]

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  • Ask Umbra’s Book Club: Is eating animals eating you?

    Dearest readers, Great thread yesterday on the varying viewpoints surrounding issues of independence, financial culpability, the 9-to-5 rat race, and being possessed by our possessions—all inspired by Dolly Freed’s Possum Living circa 1978. For today’s starting point, I thought we’d delve into the blood and guts—literally—as in raising, killing, cleaning, and eating your own meat […]

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  • Ask Umbra’s Book Club: Does your job own you?

    Dearest readers, How did you like our first book club selection, Dolly Freed’s Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and With (Almost) No Money? I thoroughly enjoyed it—aside from some mild retching at the thought of removing a turtle’s gallbladder (a necessary step for a proper snapper soup)—and came away feeling amused, […]

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  • Ask Umbra on Ronald McDonald’s retirement, card games, and a coffee stirring stir

    Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, After close to 50 years of hawking fatty food directly to kids, a groundswell of parents, health experts, and children’s advocates are calling on McDonald’s to retire Ronald McDonald. A new report and national poll released by Corporate Accountability International found that close to half of the […]

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