The Friday 5: Old Dogs, New Tricks Edition

A weekly roundup of EcoSalon’s top stories.

Just when you thought you might be destined to only meet men at dark, dingy bars that reek of Pabst Blue Ribbon, sex columnist Abigail Wick gives them the special sauce in her article Sex by Numbers: 5 Ways Yoga Can Keep Men Out of Bars. Her advice? Take a yoga class and become one with a healthy woman in a bamboo-floored room with Krishna music and temple bells. Dirty dogs can learn new tricks.

The fashion industry is one of the most wasteful cogs on the planet, yet we love it and buy clothes like, well, they’re going out of style. Can we learn to be conscious consumers? Can we fine tune a fashion program for ourselves that isn’t so wasteful? We are in agreement with writer Abigail Doan in Upping the Ante on the Ethical Fashion Frontier that the next step in ethical fashion just might start with being aware of the genius of place. We also put a whole hell of a lot of faith in you as a consumer that you can change – can you?

Even foodies are scared of things; not arugula or bok choy but bigger things like measuring tools. Anna Brones, our fearless food columnist for Foodie Underground, decides to throw care to the wind and take a cheese making class with a friend that requires her to do just that – pull out a measuring cup. Turns out kitchen tools can be fun in Foodie Underground: Fresh Cheese 101.

If you’ve ever had a sleeping partner with a dog or cat that sleeps with them, you may have been repulsed, annoyed, or thought less of them after the “sleeping” was over. I mean really, when the pet keeps you up all night, isn’t that a behavior problem you want to nip in the bud? Get a life and teach your pet they have their own place to sleep taking notes all the while reading Eco Luxe for Four Legged Furry People. Don’t worry, they’ll still be comfortable without your unshaven leg on them.

What have we learned about shopping from this recession? Our global economy has taken a beating and consumers everywhere are changing their buying habits which alters everything worldwide. We are more frugal, cautious and conscious, which makes sense when you realize how loose we’ve been for so long. Maybe we all forgot mom telling us there were kids starving in other countries and not to waste a thing – so we made the most of what we had. In No Easy Sell: 6 Traits of the Post-Recession Consumer, we get to suck up the fact that mom’s metaphor for not wasting was spot on.

Amy DuFault

Amy DuFault is a conscious lifestyle writer, consultant and fashion instigator. She resides in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.