I used newspapers and paper towels once or twice before; I kept losing too much soil through the drainage hole. Unfortunately, they both held too much water in the pot for too long. So I tore up the sheets of paper, balled them up and threw them in the bottom of the pot. This gave the water some space to drain through while keeping the soil from escaping. It also helped fill up some space, made the pot less heavy and I used less soil. I liked it much better than using packing peanuts like so many magazines or garden websites suggest. Now that I think about it, I bet non-glossy junk mail would be put to good use this way too!

It gave me a chuckle, Janis. I've been messing with computers since 1966 when I took my first course in it, on the big mainframes at our local University. Took a couple more courses in programming down the road in the early seventies. I remember when everyone was WAITING FOR WANG! The vision for PCs was there much earlier than today's kids could imagine. I laughed at Lilo's Luddite comments. I am pretty darned close to one, but I don't cut my nose off to spite my face. I'm fine with technology if it fulfills a purpose for me and then I don't have any problems wrapping my mind around it. I have some really deep seated personal agendas when it comes to the disposable mindset, however. It really rubs me the wrong way to have perfectly good machines sent to the boneyards because the technology behind them has gone defunct. I guess because sometimes that technology doesn't necessarily do a job better. Before Skype, I used to use ICQ. I knew how to use TDY terminals to keep in touch with my deaf friends. I had a cable way back in 1970 twenty years before they became available here, and as soon as digital phones came down the block, I had one. I sat here counting the number of computers I've had over the last twenty years, and I think I am up to six PCs, my first one custom-built before they became available in box stores. However, I just bought my first laptop and had to ask my kids how to turn the danged thing off. LOL. I do know older people who refuse to learn anything electronic. It can bite them in the butt, it can. But, so much of the new stuff coming down the block are toys and expensive ones at that. Fine, if you have the time and money to play. My DD and I have speculated about whether my father would have gotten into computers had he lived past his 81st birthday. We both concluded that he'd have the best systems out there and have them figured out forward and backward.

tsugajunkie, It looks like you're reading very selectively, not picking up on any of my points. I don't know what the actual numbers are. Let me be very clear about that. What I do know for certain is that used textbooks is $0 to author. The author would make more money by selling electronic copies of their book because more people would buy it. Heck, maybe people would be willing to pay even more than a paper book for it because of the convenience of not having to go to bookstores and wait in line then return the book because the professor changed his mind at the last minute. treebarb, I understand the problem of losing a lot of our manufacturing jobs to other countries. But saying that we should continue to waste paper to protect jobs is like saying we shouldn't use home solar systems because if everyone made their own energy, the people that work at the power plant would be out of a job. Or its like saying we shouldn't try to keep people off drugs because if nobody was on drugs, the people that work in the rehab industry would be in the unemployment line. There is a clear solution here. Provide hard copies for students that prefer that. Everyone else can use rights-managed digital copies and kindle type things.

I have been carded most of my adult life. When I was 18 I was embarrassed. In my 20s I was annoyed. During my 30s I was thrilled! In my early 40s it was back to being embarrassing. It only happened once but it was doosy. I was going trough a checkout at a grocery store. My purchase included a bottle of wine, and the elderly gentleman checker asked for my ID. I assumed it was an awkward attempt at flirting so I smiled at him and said "I don't think so". He loudly and sternly said "Young lady, I don't make the rules here and I like my job." I produced my ID, which he examined closely before ringing up my bottle of wine. By then everyone nearby was following this weird episode and snickering. They clearly had better eyesight than the old gentleman! He did apologize and said the store had a policy of checking everyone buying alcohol who looked like they might be 30 or less, so I guess it was a compliment of sorts but one I could have lived without! Since then, no one asks for my ID anymore. Now I miss it. Sigh...