The volume of New York City trash-plan chatter is starting to pick
back up after months of quiet. City Council members have been
telling the press -- in
this instance the New York Daily News -- that they plan
to vote on Mayor Bloomberg´s long-term solid waste management plan this
spring.
And the mayor himself has started talking up the plan again,
marketing it from the curious angle that it´s an attempt to "distribute
the pain" of managing the city´s waste among all of its boroughs.
Speaking of pain distribution, I´ve been sampling the barrage of
Olympics coverage from Turin, Italy, and I keep coming across
stories that describe how spartan the athletes´ living quarters are, and
how much trouble they´re having getting a good night´s sleep.
And according to
this article from Newsweek, the visiting media hordes
haven´t had it much better. In fact, in some cases those well-heeled
giornalisti have had it even rougher than the athletes. Evidently,
nightly 2 a.m. trash dumpster pickups underneath one´s hotel window
aren´t exactly conducive to spinning scintillating dispatches to
transmit back to the home front.
While we´re on the subject of athletes struggling to perform in tough
conditions, how about
this story from ABC News about 22 runners being
hospitalized, two in critical condition, after taking part Sunday in
Hong Kong´s biggest marathon.
Regrettably, Hong Kong, never exactly a destination one would seek
out for the purpose of gulping bracing chestfuls of mountain-fresh air,
was hit by a spell of particularly nasty smog in the days leading up to
the race.
Lastly, since we´ve stumbled into the realm of air pollution and
it´s Valentine´s Day, what better way to conclude today´s edition
than with
this, the latest from our favorite "news" source, the
Onion: "EPA Warns Of Dangerous Levels Of Romance In Air."
Be sure not to miss the photo near the bottom of the moon-suited L.A.
cop disposing of a piece of "hazardous romantic waste."
