San Francisco is not the first city to consider such legislation. Plastic bags are either taxed or not used in parts of South Africa, Ireland and Taiwan. Bangladesh has banned them and Zanzibar, Rwanda and Paris are also considering a ban. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will vote on the measure next week and, if passed, it will take effect in six months.

Do you take reusable shopping bags with you when you do your grocery shopping? The first step is to start keeping the bags in the trunk of your car. Eventually, even if you forget that they're there for the first few times, you'll gradually get into the habit of bringing them into the store with you. Some grocers will give their shoppers a discount for bringing in their own bags, but even if they don't, you'll probably get the warm and fuzzy feeling of self-satisfaction from helping the environment.

Once you're in the habit of bringing in canvas bags, it shouldn't be much of a stretch to add a cooler bag to your collection, which will keep frozen foods, fresh produce and refrigerated products protected from the heat of the car - an especially useful feature for a hot summer day or any time that you have a long commute. This particular insulated bag is helpfully labeled, and has sturdy wooden handles that make it easy to carry.

Bagged greens usually state that they are pre-washed and ready to eat on their labels, but that doesn't mean that they are edible. In their most recent issue, Consumer Reports tested several types of bagged salad mixes for the "yuck factor," the phrase that they used to describe the percentage of the "ready to eat" greens that were wilted or otherwise inedible. It turned out that there was a lot of yucky stuff. Out of the 62 bags that they meticulously tested, inedible greens ranged from .5% to 83% of the salads and "the vast majority had 'off' odors, smelling like rotten vegetables, sauerkraut or chlorine... [or] imitation crab meat." Needless to say, they recommended buying greens and making your own salad mixes, or at least washing the bagged greens before eating them. Besides, as they rightly point out, it is less expensive to chop up your own lettuce - especially if you're going to have to throw away a portion of the bagged stuff that isn't as fresh as it should be.

Sarah may have wanted to attempt the Taco Town Pizza-Crepe-Taco-Pancake-Chili Bag that was made famous in a memorable SNL sketch, but it looks like someone beat her to it. Over at a guy named Drew’s MySpace blog, he and his friends documented their entire process of making the “taco” for Drew’s birthday. Layer upon layer was stacked up, pinned together, dipped in batter and deep fried. Since they didn’t need to take it “to-go,” they skipped the past step of trying to put it in a bag in favor of simply digging it. It actually looks like it wasn’t bad, though the guys don’t look like they felt all that well afterward.

The original SNL sketch is after the jump.