The Big List #2

This actually made it to a second installment. How about that? Might it actually become - gasp! - a regular feature? You can't even stand the suspense, can you?

• Green Piece Indy

It’s not often that letters to the editor in the Star catch my attention, but there was one in Thursday’s (2/21) online edition that did. It mentions Indiana’s “green” ranking by Forbes magazine - 49th, if you did not know - and refers to a website for Green Piece Indy, where you can sign up to get an e-mail twice a week with tips on how to live a greener life in Indiana.


• Nader 2008

Ralph Nader is running for President again. I reject the argument that Ralph Nader’s being in the race in 2000 cost Al Gore the election - because Al Gore actually won that election. The Supreme Court cost Gore the presidency when it ordered stopped the recount that would have proven that Gore carried Florida. Throw in badly designed Florida ballots and Florida voters who could not be bothered to vote correctly, and there’s really no logical reason to blame Nader for Bush’s monarchy - except that far too many Americans are simplistic and like easy monosyllabic answers, even if those answers are incorrect. Also, he bucks the two-party system, which is reason enough to support him.


• And That Lodge Number Is...?

Having taken up residence in Inrvington, I dutifully signed up for the e-mail newsletter of the Irvington Community Council, which arrives in my inbox every Monday like clockwork. This week’s newsletter has a link to a story in the new entertainment section of the Star about a place called Mosaic Church that recently got itself up and running in the old Masonic lodge just east of Ritter on Washington Street. The days of my going to church without being asked to do so by someone else are...actually, I was going to say that the days of my going to church without being asked to by someone else are over - but I’m not sure that there were ever any of those days to begin with. (I do not at all mind going to church when asked - it's just not something that I would ever do of my own freewill.) But anyway...I don’t go to church, but religion does sort of interest me - which I fully acknowledge as being about as oxy as moronic gets, but there you are. This Mosaic Church has a pastor who wears jeans and a t-shirt and wants to let people know that it’s okay to doubt - and he calls himself a “teaching pastor” as opposed to a “preacher.” He acknowledges that the word “preacher” has some connotations that a progressive church might want to avoid. Now that’s refreshing. Interesting, too, that a progressive new church would choose that particular old lodge buliding. Ever driven by it? Know what its lodge number is? It’s 666, if you can dig it.


• Development Planned Around Lucas Oil Stadium

A 24-story hotel with 224 rooms and a 5000-square-foot restaurant just might join Lucas Oil Stadium in an area of downtown that could do with something interesting happening to it. Probably that won’t be the only thing that pops up in the Southwest Quad as a result of the new stadium, either. See how little economic growth is derived from new sports stadia?


• How Green Is Your Stuff?

From Newsweek’s Tip Sheet, a blurb about how the “green” language on some products might not, in fact, mean anything “green” at all. Includes links to several independent certification groups where you can check the facts.