Visiting "that" and "which"
My devoted readers may recall my incisive page resolving for once and for all the difference between the pronouns who and whom and how to use them on my  "Who Vs. Whom" page here.  Now I spelunk intrepidly through the cavern of that versus which here.  Here's the synopsis: use that when introducing a description that identifies or singles out the noun from others.  The lawn mower that is broken is in the garage.  (There's multiple lawn mowers and we're talking about just one of them.)  The lawn mower, which is broken, is in the garage.  (There's not any question of multiple lawn mowers, we're merely supplying additional information about the lawnmower, which requires a comma before the which.)  The page has more, including the controversy of defining whiches and E.B. White's eloquent defiance of his own grammatical advice in his essay, "The Death of a Pig."
posted May 16, 2:04 pm

Toxic couch
I think Crate & Barrel is the place to go for aesthetically beautiful furniture at reasonable prices.  So it was disappointing to find out that all their sofas, as well as virtually all sofas currently being  manufactured for the United States are still required, thanks to a misguided California law, to be treated with carcinogenic flame retardant.  Over time, the flame retardant seeps out, increasing the risk of cancer for people who use the couch.  A September 6, 2012 New York Times article by Dashka Slater asking "How Dangerous Is Your Couch?," here, describes a widely used flame retardant as "a mutagen" that "should not be used."  A May 6, 2012 Chicago Tribune article by Michael Hawthorne, "Testing Shows Treated Foam Offers No Safety Benefit," here, shows studies suggesting  furniture with the flame retardants burns just as fast as furniture without.  A October 31, 2012 Science KQED post by Liza Gross here suggests that the chemical properties that make a flame retardant retard flame apparently are inseparable from the properties that make it threaten health, and goes on to describe the discouraging response of manufacturers, which has been to play a game of chemical whack-a-mole by simply switching one toxic flame retardant with another.  A December 7, 2012 Consumers Digest article here gives hope that California may revise its law in summer, 2013, possibly in time for retardant-free couches for the fall.  But Crate & Barrel—otherwise my preferred furniture seller—continues to sell toxic couches and even touts them as safe: according to an e-mail I received from them today, the upholstery and foam in all Crate & Barrel furniture will continue to be treated with flame retardant—they're just switching the flame retardant, as of October, 2012, from chlorinated tris to a another chemical "from the phosphorous/ phosphate [sic] family" (the e-mail misspelled the word "phosphorus") with a secret "proprietary" formula.  What can you do?  Think twice before you buy any upholstered Crate & Barrel furniture—and contact them here.  
posted March 14, 2013, 7:22 pm

Gun-crazy U.S.A.
Gun proliferation has long been corroding quality of life in America, as satirized in experimental rock group Negativland's song "Sycamore," here, which satirically juxtaposes a Bay Area real estate pitch against a manipulative gun lobby political ad, but lately has been getting much worse.  Last year's Connecticut massacre was only the most local and recent manifestation of a country with failed gun laws.  Thanks to the vigorous lobbying of the completely crazy National Rifle Association, mass killings have never been easier—or more frequent.  America's cowed legislature can't even pass anemic background check laws.  And reinstating the assault weapons ban that Bush let expire?  Meanwhile, the country drifts from one mass shooting to another.  As a July, 2012 post in Mother Jones, Mother Jone's Guide to Mass Shootings in America, here, out of 62 mass shootings over the past 30 years, in 49 of them, the killer obtained their weapons legally.  What can you do?  Find out who your representative is here, call them and tell them you don't care what the gun lobby tells them, you want gun control, including a ban on assault weapons, now.
posted January 3, 2013, 4:10 pm  

For entries posted prior to 2013, I invite you to my archive.