The Right to Dry

It's one of life's frustrating ironies: As many of us try to reduce our energy consumption, we live in old homes with rusting clotheslines hulking in the backyard. Like the ultimate Southern California irony, the Los Angeles Red Car line, these metal contraptions were allowed to rust over or removed altogether when clothes dryers became the rage.

When I rented a house in Monrovia, we had something like this clothes tree in the backyard:



Just picture that contraption 50 years on, creaky and sagging in spots. But I had no dryer at the time, and hey - it worked great! If I did my wash strategically (which I seldom did), I could even peg up the unmentionables on the inside and hide them from view of the house in back (which shared a lot with ours) by stringing the sheets on the outside.

Although I did eventually get a dryer, I continued using a clothes line, especially on hot days, until my kids came along. With the volume of laundry that little kids produce, the dryer really was a savior at that point.

But now that I'm washing for two again, I've been wanting to get back to line drying and I rigged up a short line near my garden this summer. The notion was reinforced when I interviewed an advocate for the right to dry movement a few months ago.

So how fortunate was it when I whizzed past a little hulk of metal and wood on someone's curb yesterday? I turned my bike around and discovered a fold-up drying rack that I slung over my shoulder:



It was in great condition except that one metal rod had come loose from the wooden rack. A hot glue gun, a nail and a bit of packing tape, et voila! Good as new.

Free Shipping Day

There are plenty of shopping days left until Christmas.

Of course, that's not a license to procrastinate, but who wants to shop for the holidays when we're working on our Halloween costumes?

Knowing how often I shop for gifts late in the season (I actually like holiday shopping during the holidays - crazy, huh?), I've already marked my calendar for Dec. 17, this year's Free Shipping Day.

This revolutionary idea is the brainchild of an entrepreneur I interviewed, Maisie Knowles, for my podcast this summer.

She and her husband Luke founded FreeShipping.org in 2007. Last year, they had a last-minute brainstorm and created Free Shipping Day in time for the 2008 holiday shopping season. They were surprised to get participation from 250 retailers and 250,000 visitors in a 10-day period, including over 100,000 visitors on the actual day itself.

This year, the Knowles' expect to attract more than 500 retailers. If you're a small business owner selling online, it's an idea that worth considering.

How does it work? Free Shipping Day occurs on the last possible 24-hour period when retailers can guarantee on-time delivery by Christmas Eve. Retailers who participate promise to provide free shipping for online orders placed on that day. So far, merchants like Toys R Us, Babies R Us, FAO Schwartz, eToys, Baby Universe and Crate & Barrel have confirmed they will participate this year.

My calendar is marked; how about yours?

Pissed Off?

There are a lot of unfortunate people who live by P.T. Barnum's* old adage, "There's a sucker born every minute."

Even more unfortunate: A lot of them are determined to make suckers out of startup entrepreneurs. Nothing more tempting to a con artist than an optimistic, enthusiastic individual with a little money saved up or borrowed, apparently.

One of the first tests of a successful entrepreneur, in my book, is whether s/he gets through the startup phase without being victimized by someone selling worthless "information," "motivation" or "consulting." I have a hunch that a lot of would-be business owners get ripped off - but don't report it because they are too embarrassed.

Sometimes we have to learn lessons the hard way, I guess.

But here's some good news: The Internet has empowered all of us who may be lured by scammers. And if we're not sharp enough to research first - and resist - we can always report later, and save someone else from ruin.

I take some comfort in knowing that the bad guys' true motives are being exposed all the time. Here's the latest site to focus on ripoff reports.

Before you do business with a new company, take a gander and see if they've recently pissed someone off. And if you're a small business owner, it would be smart to monitor the site and take steps immediately to resolve any complaints posted about your company there.


*Turns out that Barnum denied coining that phrase, but if he didn't say it, it's never been determined exactly who did.