On a recent trip back East to visit my family, I made them buy a huge recycling bin and educated them on the importance of not throwing styrofoam containers out of the car window on the highway (no, really) and instead treating our planet with respect. Sure, living in San Francisco for almost nine years has definitely turned me into more of a hippie than I was upon arrival (I chant in yoga and have been known to keep browning banana skins and other organic detritus in my bag until I can deposit them in my compost bin at home), but the foundation of my Mother Earth-loving self was not born here, but in front of Nickelodeon in the early '90s.
That's where I met Z.Z. Ziff of Salute Your Shorts, a short-lived show about various trouble-making teens and their obnoxious counselor "Ug" at a summer camp called Camp Anawanna. There was the ginger bully and his dim sidekick, the All-American boy, the geek, the prima donna, the sporty girl, a Rilo Kiley member, and, last but certainly not least, the animal-loving, tree-hugging environmentalist. While the other kids were giving into greed or jealousy or whatever other silly thing middle schoolers are into, Z.Z., with her Earth earrings and naive idealism was always the voice of reason.
And never moreso than in the season one finale, "Environmental Party," in which she attempts to educate her peers about the irreparable damage humans are doing to our fragile planet. At first, she goes the enraged activist route, shutting off the power and water to send a message to her blow-drying, long-shower-taking room mates. She also turns their room into a recycling center. This does not go over well and she is asked: "Are you out of your granola-munching, whole-wheat, tie-dyed save-the-planet mind?!" Um, rude!
Z.Z.'s second approach is better: a catchy song about environmentalism! Sample lyric: "If we don't change the way we live, we'll be covered in PUKE AND ROTTING GARBAGE! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!!!" Despite being the best thing ever written (sorry, Marcel Proust), the kids think she's insane and end up food-fighting and moshing 'cause why the hell not?
