This spring, clean up more than just the yard

Carson City's Pride Week has passed. We've employed "spring cleaning" on our yards, maybe our homes. Now it's time to clean out our lives.

A few items have crossed the news desk at the Appeal lately that we want to share.

First is the move by Fortune "some hundred" companies to make one day a week an e-mail-free day. I'm not convinced this would work so well in the news industry, but it seems to have its benefits. Without e-mail people speak to each other; they get out of their cubicles and communicate face-to-face or at least call and talk on the phone.

This happened to us here at the Appeal. After completing the series of Nevada Women for Women's History Month in March we finally met, yes in person, the woman we had been working with.

In case you hadn't noticed, the 2008 presidential elections are coming to Nevada a bit earlier than in past years. Expect to soon be inundated - are we editorializing here? - with robo calls. You can get angry, become annoyed, screen your phone calls, or you can opt out - at least with one California company.

Democratic Dialing, a political telemarketing company in Davis, Calif., has instituted a do-not-call list. Owner Richard Gilmore said he sees it doing his clients no good to have folks be angry about receiving a robo call so he has set up a Web site where you can opt out. In the last election cycle he said his business made more than 200 million calls. He worries that if robo-call providers aren't responsible lawmakers will legislate him, and others, out of business. Ironic isn't it? Opt out at: www.democraticdialing.com.

In case you didn't sign up in the first few waves of the national do-not-call movement here's the information for the National Do Not Call registry: www.donotcall.gov.

There are ways too that you can clean out your snail-mail box. The credit bureaus offer a toll-free number that enables you to "opt-out" of having pre-approved credit offers sent to you for two years. Call 1-888-5-OPTOUT (567-8688) or visit www.optoutprescreen.com. Other services for reducing mail also exist. Spend some time surfing the Web for more details. Some are free, some aren't.

These are a few things we wanted to share, remember to recycle this newspaper when you're done with it. It's a free service of the Carson City landfill, which collected a whopping 866 tons of trash for free during Pride Week.