During the presidential campaign, I noted a graphic series of handouts available at Starbucks that explored the most contentious issues.

It was produced by Good magazine, and so was this.

Longtime readers know I'm a committed Michael Pollan fan, ever since "Omnivore's Dilemma," which, to me, is not only brilliant in the extreme but also a model for my professional aspirations

At Tara Pope Parker's blog at nytimes.com, Pollan is collecting our collected wisdom on sage and healthy eating. It appears that the post went up on the 9th, and that in less than a week, more than 2,100 readers have left their tips, including me.

The West Medford Community Center is hosting a recycling event on Saturday from 9 to noon. They have a list of stuff they'll take, ranging from $2 for a boom box to $15 for a hard drive/printer/monitor combo. TVs, fridges, and other appliances are $10.

111 Arlington St., Medford, 781-483-3042.

A story from marketwatch.com reports that prospective homebuyers may finally be over their space lust. 

The average size of homes started in the third quarter of 2008 was 2,438 square feet, down from 2,629 square feet in the second quarter, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Similarly, the median size of homes started in the third quarter was 2,090, down from 2,291.

I am not the first, by far, to say that sustainability has a far wider context than "just"  energy efficiency. Even on this blog, Andrea Atkinson of the Green Roundtable made that point when I asked her "what's the one thing you wish everyone would just get right?"

I'll probably mention it again, but the Down 2 Earth trade and lifestyles show has announced its schedule, so you can start planning: April 3-5 at the Hynes Convention Center, the same locale as last year's inaugural event.

I expect the show, which I found a bit uneven but still worthwhile, to gain momentum this year, though I suppose it could also find the going tougher because of the economy. I have  n-o  d-o-u-b-t  that the down economy makes the efficiency messages of the green movement more important than ever, but I'm not sure everyone sees it that way.

... but in a good way.

Interstate Bakeries, which made its fortune (and then its bankruptcy) by selling such questionable substances as Twinkies and Wonder Bread, is unveiling a line of natural breads that will have no artificial flavors or preservatives, high-fructose corn syrup, or trans fats. 

This is what change looks like. The only reason a company takes an action like that is because it thinks it can prosper by doing so, and the only reason it thinks that is because its market studies reveal that that's what people want.

The Times has a story this morning about how various entities — California utlities, midwestern colleges, etc. — are using the competitive instinct to enlist energy savers.

One of the points of my continuing series, "What We Do At Home," has been its subset, "What We Don't Do At Home." We're trying, but we're far from achieving a perfectly sustainable lifestyle, even within the bounds of what any two suburbanites can do without moving to the tropics and growing/shooting/foraging for everything we eat.

Especially during the election, many among the climate-concerned called for a "Manhattan Project"-style initiative to devise or develop the technology that's going to save our asses.

But that's not a good analogy, because we don't need one solution — instead of trying to create one thing, we must solve a myriad of problems that don't all stem from the same stalk, even if energy is the most common point. That means we need a myriad of solutions.