Kickstart: Red, white and awooooooo!

There's a werewolf stalking a neighborhood in Piqua, Ohio … at least for now.

Phil is a nearly 10-foot-tall plastic werewolf that Mary Simmons has decided needs to keep lookout outside her home all year, not just for Halloween. He's currently clad in red, white and blue patriotic clothing while carrying American flags. She's planning to swap that out for beachwear after July 4.

But not all of her neighbors appreciate Phil. Local television station WHIO reports that the city sent her notice to remove the "seasonal decoration," but on Facebook Simmons says that Phil isn't going anywhere.

"He's kind of become my house mascot," Simmons told another local TV station, WKEF. "I kind of look at it as a security thing. Who wants to break into a house with a 9.5-foot werewolf sitting outside of it? I know I wouldn't."

City officials told WKEF it has no plans to force Simmons to take it down.

The werewolf decoration was introduced by retailer Home Depot in 2022 as a companion to the 12-foot skeleton it began selling in 2020.

It's time to celebrate the workers who make recycling systems work.

This is Waste & Recycling Workers Week, which began in 2012 and is a "celebration honoring the individuals … in the industry for their hard work and dedication," says the nonprofit group that organizes the event.

Honors linked to the week include proclamations from businesses and local communities, with a few sites providing extra treats such as a free Waffle House breakfast for waste and recycling workers in Columbia, S.C.

Some suggestions from the organizers for individuals:

• Be on hand to help load bulky items.

• Print out an appreciative coloring book for your kids.

• A treat would be nice. How about cookies or a cold bottle of water left at the curb alongside your bin?

Coffee shops and restaurants have been replacing plastic stir sticks with wooden ones in a move to improve sustainability. They've also been the target of state and national bans.

Now those wooden ones are facing their own replacement.

PaStir, a Canadian company that makes wheat-based stir sticks from pasta, says its products grow within four months (rather than up to 20 years for the trees made into wooden sticks) and can be tossed into the same composting stream as food waste, where they break down into biomass within two months.

This isn't a new idea. Noodles — particularly fettuccine — have been used by individual shops for a while. Also, the company warns that those people with gluten intolerance should stick to other options. (My local coffee shop, which just started using PaStir, offers wooden sticks as well.)