You might not realize it, but today is "Blog Action Day." As the organizers put it, "On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment." I considered organizing "Annoyed Librarian Blog Action Day" to try to encourage bloggers around the web to unite and blog about the AL, but then I realized my feelings might get hurt if just a few people did it and they were really mean or something, so I'm blogging about the environment. I think I'm being boycotted by a lot of librarian bloggers anyway because they know that every time they criticize me I get a bunch of new fans and they just hate that.
I've noted before that I'm not a nature loving sort of gal, but I do think it's important to have an environment, so I don't mind doing my part to save it. Some people donate money to environmental charities, but I'm a librarian and every dollar counts. Some people make movies about how bad the environment is, but those people all have more money than me, too. Some celebrities go on talk shows and tell the world about their electric cars and stuff, neglecting to mention their private jets, but if I went on Oprah I'd have to reveal my identity, so I'll just be a celebrity in secret. I'm like Batman (or perhaps Batwoman; is there a Batwoman?), living as a boring librarian during the day, being the AL by night.
So, you ask, how am I saving the environment? I'm saving the environment the Annoyed Librarian way: by drinking, specifically Banrock Station Wine. I would never give up the martinis, but now I temper the effects with some inexpensive wine that saves the world with every glass I drink. Besides, the martini is properly treated as an aperitif, and one needs something to drink during and after dinner. It doesn't matter, because neither Tanqueray nor Beefeaters nor Bombay Dry save the environment. I know. I checked.
And how does drinking this wine save the environment? Because Banrock Station in Australia is also a nature reserve where the company is restoring some damaged wetlands. I never want to be in a wetland, but they seem to be the sorts of things that an environment needs. Because of Banrock Station's success in Australia, they now sponsor preservation and nature reclamation projects around the world, including the Florida Everglades. This is actually a company that does good things, besides making a useful product and employing a lot of people and stuff like that. Most companies do that boring stuff, but they don't save the world.
Thus, buying Banrock Station Wine helps Banrock Station do their good environmental work. That's the kind of environmental activism I like!
Did I mention this stuff is cheap? Partly, it's inexpensive because I'm buying the boxed variety, or what I understand the Aussies call "cask wine." When Americans think box wine, they usually think crappy wine, and they're usually right. But I gather from my extensive research on the topic, using both Google and the Wikipedia, that in other parts of the world this isn't necessarily the case. In fact, the box wine packaging is superior to a bottle in the short run, because as the bag holding the wine collapses, no air gets in, which means the wine stays fresh for weeks. No need to try to finish off that bottle of merlot because it'll be stale tomorrow. (On the other hand, that's always a good excuse to finish off a bottle of wine that never works when you're talking about a bottle of gin, though "I've just got to finish off this vermouth tonight" might work.) One doesn't want to store this stuff in one's wine cellar for years, but for casual wine drinking it's very convenient. I don't have a wine cellar, anyway.
The box has 3 liters of wine in hardly more space than 2 regular wine bottles, and it's lighter and cheaper to ship. Thus, even the shipping is less hazardous on the environment because less fuel is used to ship the wine. It costs about the equivalent of $5/bottle, and you can recycle the box when you're done, whereas you would have had to recycle 4 bottles. I don't know if you can recycle the cute foil bags the wine comes in, but I don't have to think about it because I make Christmas gifts out of them.
As for the taste, eh, it's not bad. I'm not a wine snob, except for vermouth. I could probably tell you within a couple of sips what gin you've made my martini with, but as long as it doesn't taste actively bad I can't tell much difference with wine. I like it okay. But even if I didn't like it, I would continue to drink it, because the more of this wine I consume, the better for the environment it will be. As usual, I'm willing to sacrifice myself for the greater good. I hope you remember that when I declare Annoyed Librarian Blog Action Day.
About Me
- AL
- The Annoyed Librarian is possibly the most successful, respected, and desirable librarian of her generation. She has no other interest than to bring her wit and wisdom to the huddled librarian masses yearning to breathe free. The Annoyed Librarian is a free spirit and you are lucky to have her.
22 comments:
AL,
The "cute foil bags" can be clean and resused. I've used them to store liquids while backpacking
No batwoman, but there is a Batgirl who after being shot in the spine became Oracle, who interestingly enough was essentially the librarian for the superheroes.
I drink BlackRock beer, the heavy thick dark stuff. After about two cases I find I don't worry about the environment anymore. Or very much else for that matter.
Hmm, I may have to look up that wine.
And keep on writing. Some may boycott you, but the rest of us will keep coming here.
Batgirl really was a librarian by day - here secret identity is Barbara Gordon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batgirl
New theory - The annoyed librarian is Barbara Gordon.
Batgirl really was a librarian by day - here secret identity is Barbara Gordon.
Does this mean hip librarians will do away with tattoos and start dressing S&M outfits with black leather masks?
@anon 12:15
Of course! How else can librarians make enough money to pay the rent if not for domming in the off hours? But don't worry - I'm sure they make enough to pay for their tattoos too. Do you know how much some of them cost (the tattoos, not the doms)?
I hope this isn't out of line, but you could use your urine from the wine to grow the environment, too.
As a real environment-saver, AL must be drinking a wine that doesn't have to be flown across the ocean in a carbon dioxide spewing jet plane ... therefore my new theory is that AL is an Australian Librarian.
In the early 90's I had the good fortune to spend a post graduate year in Madrid earning some strange certificate from the Universidad Compultense de Madrid, a fine educational institution. The local store had liters of dry white wine for 49 Pesetas (half a buck or so) in those little foil lined boxes no ubiquitous in the grocery - but in the States they contain only milk.
I miss my youth, I miss sipping cocktails in the Plaza Mayor and then retreating to las cuevas for Tapas and then shuffling off to the dorm to polish off a box of wine. Up at the crack of noon the next day to take the elevator down to the first floor where the coffee shop had wonderful frothy coffee with which to start one's day.
AL, anytime you want to jet of to Europe for cocktails just say the word.
AL, you will soon be donating money to the spotted owls.
Rarely has an environmental post moved me so strongly. I raise my glass to you! And to the planet!
I could never stand martinis, it always tasted like I was drinking my great aunt Edna's perfume. Whiskey's okay, except for the slurred speech and falling down stairs part. Actually I found blackberry wine to be really good, just I feared I might turn into a hobbit.
Environment? But they're all talking about drinks...okay, have it your way. I ride a bicycle when I can, I recycle half my computer every time I upgrade, and I scarf up all the used books I can get my mitts on.
We lovingly call cask wine "Goon", the foil bag becoming the "Goon Bag". Most teenagers will attest to the bag proving to be an adequate pillow when reinflated with air at the end of the night.
As a real environment-saver, AL must be drinking a wine that doesn't have to be flown across the ocean in a carbon dioxide spewing jet plane ... therefore my new theory is that AL is an Australian Librarian.
I had this idea too, but then how would the AL know so much about the Humorless Unionator, etc.? If AL is in North America, then it would seem that drinking locally produced wine from glass bottles would still be better for the environment, because of the environmental costs of buying imported wine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goon_of_fortune
There is a Batwoman. Rather than her martial arts or crime-solving skills, her big claim to fame seems to be that she's a lesbian.
I didn't blog about the environment..I snapped on my rubber glove and went outside and did my usual policing of the library entrance/grounds, picking up the cigarette butts I don't want toddlers scooping, the bags and food wrappers that have blown under bushes, etc. Some folks think it's "beneath" a librarian? But a clean approach/entryway says everything about our environment ..and how we value the library and the patrons who drop by.
I like how you think! I drink gin with Crystal Light Raspberry Lemonade. I use the to-go packs and pour them in those little Ozarka water bottles. I don't think that's very good for the environment though...all those little plastic bottles in the trash. I'm glad you're picking up the slack for me with the box fix. Atta girl!
Crystal lite lemonade (Kroger brand is very good too) is also very good w/ vodka.
I like how AL thinks too. Come to think of it, I hardly know anyone who works in a library but doesn't drink. I'm not sure that's a coincidence, given the mindnumbing repitition that a typical work week represents.
Have you tried Hendrick's gin? It's lovely.
And I drink mine with Fresca. Or Diet Squirt.
And as one anonymous said, there is now a Batwoman, and she's a 30-something red-headed lipstick lesbian heiress.
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