Outside Loos? Men will pay extra... really.

Today I was stumbling through the people I follow on Twitter and came across one tweet that connected me to another website called TreeHugger. Okay, so that site wasn't the deal, it was just a one page article on Outside Bathrooms, or maybe I should just say it like it is. Outhouses.

Yes, my friend, there appear to be a great number of Britains - and other Europeans - who regard their outhouses as valuable amenities. Granted, America still has lots of woods compared to other continents, but this one floored me. I suppose because, like most Americans, I am very impressed when I hear an elegant British accent. Yes, I've been to Europe, but even Madison Avenue knows that if they use anything that we think is a British accent - could be Australian or South African for that matter - we are programmed to believe they are telling the truth. Maybe even that they are smarter... and richer and sexier.

Oh, come on. This isn't news. If we hear a Spanish accent or Italian, we think of lovers ... and if we hear a joyful island lilt we can feel the sun. Okay so my husband has a slight accent which I find particularly engaging, but you would too. Admit it. And if you hear a French accent, don't you think of mistresses,heartbroken spouses retaliating with an affair, a passion for book clubs (not so much reading them but pretending to) and miserably lacking resolution in final scenes in all their movies. I freely admit I have some built-in stereotypes I carry around with me, but impulse stereotypes are not really anyone's fault.

As a matter of fact, if you are out scoping the singles world, fake a foreign accent (but fake it well, of course). You are likely to gain a lot more interest than with a Philly, New York or Boston accent. (Exceptions to this are southern accents, which I find deliriously engaging when they drawl away about sustainability and the importance of keeping our civil liberties.)

This I proved when I was 17 and my girlfriend and I were running around flirting and pretending to be French exchange students. As I had studied French for several years by then, the only challenge I ever got was "Really? Sing Frere Jacques."

Of course, any idiot can sing a children's song, but I could really lay on the thick French accent. Besides, there are oh so many ways to say things like, "Mon dieu! Boujour. Bon soir and of course, au revoir." Hey, it freaked my mother out enough when I started practicing at home to forbid me to do it. It was okay, I had sort of lost interest by then anyway.

So back to the subject of outhouses. I will say that there are some compost toilets on the market now that are highly effective and conserve our water resources, but the article did not indicate if this was a honey-bucket attempt or sustainable. If you know something about this I would love to get your comments. It appears that although in the 1950's this was a source of embarrassment to middle class families in Britain, men have always 'loved them some outdoor loos'. It appears that their gender is also the one maintaining these structures - and willing to pay more for properties with one, so perhaps this is why the women don't object vigorously enough to abolish them. The men appear to actually regard these outdoor enclaves as 'getaways'. (I'll stick with art supply stores, thank you.)

Ah yes, men will always surprise me with one exception. There is absolutely nothing we women can do that will ever truly domesticate our counterparts.

Green Walls and other Portland-Inspired Innovation

Lately I have been fascinated by the subject of green roofs. I wrote an article for greenlandlady.com which I could have tripled in length. It still would not have included all the things green roofs do to improve the urban environment like capture rainwater, insulate rooftops and eliminate heat islands to name a few.

Portlanders understand me. The airport has vines crawling up the parking structure for no other reason than they are beautiful, which warms my heart. Under my daughter's direction, Multnomah's County Crops farm produced 12,000 pounds of fresh vegetables for the food banks this past summer. People ride bikes to work (like demons, so watch those intersections), walk and use public transit as reflex behavior. With our general drizzle, nobody cares what you hair looks like either. It's a cool place.

Our young people here are just brimming with great ideas. Another local gal, Laura Kutner, is currently serving with the Peace Corps in Guatemala. She got some well-deserved press when she helped insulate a school there with discarded plastic bottles. She noticed there was a lot of trash around where she was living and convinced her students and the community to collect them. The article is pretty interesting - it has pictures too - and shows the construction with the bottles, stuffed and filled, being stuccoed inside the walls.

The latest? The Federal building at Jefferson and Third in downtown Portland will be using $133 million dollars to revamp the energy waster high rise and turn it into an environmental showpiece. The money came from the stimulus/recovery act and will help fulfill President Obama's desire to upgrade all federal buildings and structures to energy efficiency and environmentally sound operations.

A wonderful feature that the architects, SERA, will provide to satisfy the Portland community's soul is a green wall on the building. The West side of this 18-story tower will have plants growing all the way up that side of the building. The story even made the New York Times' on-line edition this morning, as it is such a cool idea. They haven't completely worked out the kinks yet - like how to prune the plants, etc. - but the remodel includes a rain harvesting system that will probably direct the rainwater from the roof down onto the planters.

Of course, they may need to refer to a few mountain people to figure out what will be able to grow well 200 feet in the air with wind factors and other such things. It is all just so... innovative and so cool. Well, I have nothing else to say. What about you? Anything fun happening with your town?