I come from generations of ferocious volunteers – my father, who worked a full day running a textile business, would come home, eat, and gallop off to a committee meeting two or three times a week, a pattern which persisted for 40 years. In sharp contrast, I don’t like to leave the house except for shopping and parties, and these days I try to wriggle out of even those activities. This, of course, is very wrong and I am going to change. Robert Putnam, the Harvard sociologist who publishe...

I’m not the best environmentalist in the house – I admit it. Sometimes, if the compost bin is full, I put the onion skins in the trash instead of taking the compost outside and emptying it. But then again, I sometimes justify it by thinking that putting things in the compost bin is only the tiniest fragment of the environmental job. It’s easy for everyone else to claim the environmental high ground, even though they don’t ever take the full bin out to the composter and empty out the ...

I spent three months backpacking through South and Central America last spring. When I returned home from travelling, Toronto welcomed me with the stench of the garbage strike and the new plastic bag bylaw. At first, I was confused when cashiers would ask me if I wanted a bag. Of course, I thought, how else would I carry my groceries home? After awhile, I started feeling ashamed when asked if I needed a bag, whispering to the cashier that yes, indeed, I would like one bag but just th...

The present theory on global warming – that humans, with our absurd levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) production are the main cause for the increase in the Earth’s temperature – is generally regarded as fact. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth hinged on this hypothesis. Governments dole out billions of dollars in funding for climatology each year, a ten-fold increase since the early 90s, because there is supposedly no other explanation that could be as apt as this “truth.” What i...

I remember in the 1990s when being environmentally friendly was just beginning to pick up steam. For the first time it meant that you had to wear Birkenstocks and carry around a netted tote as your handbag/grocery bag/carry-all. In my opinion, it was all too “vanilla,” or should I say “granola.” But now the environmental movement has really garnered steam and being eco-friendly is, well, chic. Not only is it no longer socially acceptable to use plastic bags but if you do, they’re fi...

When my editor came to me and asked if I could write about green wine for this issue, I cringed. It can’t be getting close to St. Patrick ’s Day yet, and while I certainly enjoy a couple of pints of green beer once a year, who would want to turn their wine green? Or was I perhaps supposed to write about Gruner Veltliner, the spritzy Austrian white that’s also known as Gru-Vee, making it a fun, trendy wine to take to parties these days? Obviously the intent was for me to look at wines th...

If historical stereotypes have taught me anything, it’s that cars are a man’s passion, not a woman’s. Advertising campaigns for vehicles have predominantly centered on the male demographic, so it surprised me when, in my second year of university, I had an insatiable desire to own my own car. I’ll admit that I’m more than a little automotively-challenged. I couldn’t change a tire if my life depended on it; frankly I’m hopeless when it comes to anything short of changing t...

A woman lucky enough to find a spa where she feels completely at ease in the hands of one of its technicians should probably work on maintaining that relationship for life. But a woman lucky enough to find a spa where she feels completely at ease in the hands of cosmetic doctors should just thank her lucky stars. When I first learned about True MediSpa, owned and operated by Dr. Romy Saibil and Dr. Francine Gerstein, I thought it...

Making it through turbulent times often seems like a gift from the gods: a matter of fate, of luck, of good fortune. When I examine things that have gone well for me, there is often a foundation of hard work, of strategic planning, and learning from experience that rests at the heart of these endeavours. Stephen Tallevi, general manager and co-founder of Grocery Gateway (an online grocery retailer), understands this very well. One key ...