Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Shopping Bags Made Of Recycled Newspaper--FROM INDIA!

Photo By John Hoff

Ann Yin, owner of the Local D'Lish store in North Loop, always seems to have samples of some intriguing new item. A few days ago, I was at Ann Yin's home on the Jordan Pond, and she showed me this cool shopping bag made out of newspaper.

As it turns out...

...not only are the bags cool because they're RECYCLED, but the newspapers are from the nation of India. You can try reading some of the articles and ads on the bag and, well, it's like a 20-second trip to the subcontinent. (Click here for an explanation of my concept of a "micro vacation.")  The people who make the bags are street children, led by a group of FORMER street children trying to help these homeless youngsters pull themselves up.

The handles are made of hand-woven jute rope, which reminds me of a little song made up by one of my relatives.

Don't smoke/
The jute-backed carpeting

That's the whole song, actually. You just keep repeating the verses, and maybe throw in something like "I said" or "No no no." Not sure why I mention that...

Oh, wait. Because I'm off to see my relatives and hit the road for a couple weeks truck driving. I may get in a blog post now and then from a cheap hotel room, but while I am gone Jeff Skrenes (The Hawthorne Hawkman) will do his best to pour Johnny Northside Dot Com content into the internet.

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