Archive for 'the real world'

Kayaking with a milkcrate

Kayaking with Milkcrates

Everyone loves and respects the usefulness of milkcrates. The word seems to be spreading lately and I can’t even keep up with the crate postings all over the web. Wool Windings blog posted some images of a recent kayaking trip. Our good friend the milkcrate made some key appearances.

Massachusetts legislators pitch 1 year prison sentences for milk crate theives

The state of Massachusetts has always had some interesting priorities. Michael F. Kane, a Democrat, is putting forth a bill that would create a penalty scale for crate thieves. Fines for first, second, and third offenses, all the way up to $1,000 and a year in prison for stealing more than $100 worth of crates. Kane said, “These crates have been used for many years in college dorms for basically storage and furniture… Obviously, I don’t want to see any college students going to jail over this, but it is becoming a cost to the industry.” I can’t wait for the first rich kid at Harvard to be jailed because of this stupid law. Read more about the Mass tax dollars at work.

Homeless man lives the crate lifestyle outdoors

Homeless prefer crates

The Dallas news tries to hate on Larry Wells’ milkcrate lifestyle. Read the full story –>Some of Dallas’ homeless prefer woods to shelters

the Aussies live it – Milk Crate Theater

Milk Crate Theater

The milkcrate news has been slow in these dog days of Summer. But, once again the Australian people have come to the table with something pushing the milkcrate lifestyle forward. Milk Crate Theater is a “solely dedicated to the homeless and disadvantaged community”. Click the photo above for more pics of their work in action.

Crateman seen in busy Australian intersection

sitting crateman

Once again the Australians are on the crate cutting edge. This sitting crate man (click the photo, for towo larger shots) was placed in a very busy intersection in Bendigo, Australia. It was only there for a few hours, but made quite a stir. Read the full story.

crate news abounds

There have been quite a few odd follow ups to the crate theft stories. They are all quite strange. It’s not really news that people steal milk crates, so this is what we get. From Iowa – a dairy claims they lose 50% of their crates every year, with losses of $250,000. From New Haven, CT – a very strange rambling story, scroll to the end for a few sentences about a racoon with a milkcrate stuck on it’s head. You don’t know how bad I wish there was a photo for that story. But, why is this news?

This crate stealing story has wings

milk in crate

I told you all about the milkcrate rustlers selling  milkcrates for plastic recycling money. This story is hitting all the news outlets. Yesterday it hit the LA Times, and also yesterday a radio piece on NPR’s Marketplace. just remember where you heard it first – Milkcrate Digest

So-Cal crate lovers watch out!

This article from a CBS news source says that southern california dairies are employing detectives and ex-cops to track down and bust milkcrate thieves. The article has some other interesting tid bits, some of which I think are way off. For example they claim that the dairy industry loses 20 million crates a year. That seems way too low! That means only 1 in 15 americans has a new crate each year. It’s gotta be more like 1 in 5, maybe 1 in 8. Anyway, there’s some funny stuff in there. The major thieves are not college kids as you would expect – the real enemy is people stealing crates to sell them in bulk, by weight, to underground recycling for money. The raw plastic that milkcrates are made of is now worth 22 cents a pound, up from 7 cents a pound in 2005. I’m not a fan of destroying milkcrates, so I denounce this kind of activity. Long live the crates – don’t get caught loving them, in so-cal at least.

Milkcrate as weapon

Milkcrate Assault

This just in from the news desk: Inmate assaulted with a milkcrate.

“Platte had access to the milk crate because they are used in the cells for inmates to store their personal belongings. Milk crates are not considered life threatening devices by the jail.”

Read the full story here.

So damn American!

Crate Haircut

Why couldn’t I have had this photo and link on memorial day! Just a perfect moment out in rural Illonois. Read the full story here.