Windy Interview on NPR: All Things Considered
Fun, Windy June 14th, 2010
Welcome NPR listeners! Please click here to access all the posts about Windy, the plastic bag stuck in a tree since March, 2008. The posts appear in reverse chronological order.
To all my regular readers, big news! I had the honor and pleasure of being interviewed by Melissa Block of National Public Radio (NPR) for a segment on All Things Considered, which aired today.
Visit NPR’s website to read the story and hear the interview (available at approx. 7PM EST).
Who knew our little Windy would go national? If we can’t get her out, I’d say that’s not a bad consolation prize.
I want to thank everyone who’s followed and enjoyed Windy’s story. Getting on board with it helped make the saga something worthy of all this attention. I have the best readers in the blogosphere and no one can tell me otherwise.
Thank you! Thank you!
Stumble it!
June 15th, 2010 at 1:21 am
Congratulations, Kathy!
So when’s your book coming out? Now that you’ve gotten national recognition a book would be the next logical step. 🙂
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June 15th, 2010 at 1:39 am
This is great news. Windy is getting her due!
And you have a fantastic public radio voice.
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June 15th, 2010 at 4:25 am
Thanks for dropping by everyone!
I’m still so excited today (though tired from lack of sleep!) The story still has some traction and I’m delighted that you’ve all commented and that others have written me directly to say how much they enjoyed the Windy interview. I’m humbled.
A special thanks go to those who thought I had a decent radio voice. I have to be honest and say that I was very nervous right before and hoped that my jitters didn’t come through.
Several people who knew the interview was on the horizon hoped they’d play the Windy song by The Association, but I notice they used the theme to American Beauty instead, which was just as good. Some of you may remember the poignant scene of a floating bag in the movie.
Thanks again for being here and showing your support for Windy and the blog in general. I meant it when I wrote that I have the best readers anywhere. I’m so, so grateful!
June 15th, 2010 at 5:02 am
That is so exciting Kathy. Windy deserves to be famous. You made Windy’s story and you deserve all of this. It is fantastic. Good job Windy.
June 15th, 2010 at 5:56 am
Congratulations! How exciting!
June 15th, 2010 at 6:09 am
You know what? In MY book you are an absolute STAR. NPR is my favorite of all time… and you and Windy are too! I can’t wait to hear it! Will wait till tonight when I can sit and enjoy it! AWESOME! You know, I was thinking you should put up a site called “bagsintrees.com” and have people simply submit pictures of bags in trees. Honestly – looking at unnecessaryquotes.com and it’s PR rank makes you see just how successful that could be LOL!
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June 15th, 2010 at 6:12 am
THAT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME AND HILARIOUS. I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
now on to the important stuff. may i please have your autograph?
i hate to see objects stuck in trees, i really want to shoot them out and get them down. windy, however, is historical monument now, she can’t be touched.
um, i really want to call the fire department and have her safely removed from that tree. she deserves to be mounted over your fireplace, just not too close.
great, fun interview, kathy. i loved it.
June 15th, 2010 at 6:45 am
Your voice is lovely! For your sake and all you’ve been through together, I hope Windy can be saved so you can keep her with you forever.
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June 15th, 2010 at 7:36 am
Yay! Our Kathy’s all famous now! (As is the plastic bag. 🙂 Which is okay, because the bag still has more talent than, say, Paris Hilton.
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June 15th, 2010 at 9:34 am
awesome! happy for you and that silly bag friend of yours.
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June 15th, 2010 at 10:26 am
That is so amazing! Congratulations Kathy and Windy!
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June 15th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Ahh – I too had a ‘Windy’ (until my office moved). I would look out my window daily and watch my ‘Windy’. This went on for a couple of years until my office relocated in December. I am confident that she is still in the tree, blowing in the wind. My boss called me yesterday after the NPR segment to let me know that you had started a blog about it. For some reason – we both found it strangly funny.
June 15th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Right after Harry and Honey, I think I love Windy best. I would give her a home and a place of honor if she was mine. (And I would never use her to pick up dog poop either.
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June 15th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
That’s awesome your story has been spotted and broadcast to a larger audience! I think humor always deserves a place in the media. I can imagine people driving along and wondering if what they’re listening to is real.
June 15th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Wow..I’ve checked in on Windy on and off and never posted anything. A friend had told me about this almost nutcase but oddly alluring woman with some blog about a plastic bag and I must say I’ve been a hooked lurker over time. Then on my way home from work, I heard the NPR story about you and Windy and almost had to pull off the road to gather myself. Not sure what to say but I’m just a little freaked out right now.
June 15th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Hey, peeps! Another long day in Windyville! Thanks for all your great comments. This is so fun for me. I’m going to be really sad when my life returns to its boring self. You guys are AWESOME!
To those who are curious about Windy’s fate, I am going to contact a company that has a patented device that can extend up to 70′ in trees (grappling hook on the end) and snatch stuck bags. I’ll have to see if they want to come down from NYC to have a try.
Nothing would make me happier than to have Windy behind glass and hanging in my home in a place of honor.
June 15th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
I would like to tear this stupid bag that doesn’t even deserve a name out of the tree and shred it to pieces and then flush it down the toilet where it belongs. This has got to be one of the stupidest, most pathetic things I have ever heard about. You need to get a life lady.
June 15th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Yay Windy! And Ben Felcher – stay out of here!
June 15th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
Whoa! What anger Ben has for an innocent bag! Maybe he has bag “issues” or a traumatic bag event in his past. Either way, I’m sorry that he can’t see the beauty of Windy. He must have a very sad life.
Me….I LOVE Windy! I love her birthday party friends and the cakes and everything! I even have my own “Windy” in the tree where I work. I like how you take something mundane and make some fun out of it–you ROCK, Kathy!! Congrats on the cool interview.
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June 16th, 2010 at 8:27 am
I was grinning while I was listening to your interview. This is so cool! But, then I burst out laughing because I couldn’t stop thinking about “schweaty balls” from SNL. I KNOW, not even remotely close in subject matter, but still.
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June 16th, 2010 at 8:34 am
Whatever happened to Gusty?
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June 16th, 2010 at 9:04 am
Congratulations Kathy! This is the first time I have heard about Windy! You made me laugh out loud this morning, and I wanted to thank you!
June 16th, 2010 at 11:19 am
Well I found your blog through the NPR site and article! I enjoyed hearing the article… though enjoy might not be the right word, since a trash bag in a tree isn’t a good thing. But anyway, fun site. 🙂
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June 16th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Hi, Ben! Dude. Hope you had a better day today.
Everybody else — Thanks for all your kind and funny comments! Things are settling down now and I hope to resume writing my regular stuff for the blog. It felt like a little bit of celebrity for a time. What a hoot!
Karyn — Gust blew out (or was taken out) very quickly after he showed up. He was on a low branch, so I think the maintenance crew was able to clear him. I really thought a reader came over and put him there.
Thanks, everybody, for taking time to let me know you liked the story. It means a lot to me.
June 17th, 2010 at 1:15 am
Kathy,
I was reading some of the comments over on NPR and they just cemented why I do not listen to that group. I think most of the listeners that griped about your interview need a good laxative to loosen them up and help them enjoy the inane humor this world gives us in the face of tragedy every day.
Thanks for the interview as well as your blog. You make me smile and sometimes laugh out loud.
June 17th, 2010 at 5:38 am
I was just reading some of the negative comments on npr too… a benchmark sign that Windy is now a Celebrity.
June 17th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
That is a great honor and something to be very proud of. It is one of my favorite shows on the radio. You should be very proud of yourself.
June 17th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
Kathy,
I thought I’d tell you that I know someone with access to a bucket. Like the one the telephone companies or construction people use. It would be quite a ride to get there, but if you had one of those, you could certainly hang out with Windy instead of just being merely the head of a fan club to a standoffish celebrity.
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June 18th, 2010 at 1:05 am
Dear Kindred spirit,
My friend, Carol, knew that I would resonate with your story and sent it to me yesterday. She didn’t even know that since 1996 my children and I have been fascinated with animated plastic bags (but never thought to share my fascination in a blog!!).
The first time I mentioned it out loud was to them (my children — then 3 & 5) as they waited patiently with me in the car for a dentist’s appointment. With time to kill, I engaged in a spontaneous story about a plastic bag we’d noticed being blown gracefully about the parking lot. We watched the bag make its way toward us, navigating treacherous territory in front of and between moving cars. The brave bag (in full animated Mommy voice) made it all the way to us. It was coming to greet the children — whom he knew by name. BUT, just as he was about to make it to the car door, he was caught by a gust of wind that hoisted him upward suddenly, and even though his plans had changed, he was optimistic and decided to be excited to be free, happily floating above everyones’ heads, gleefully shouting what he could see from his vantage point. Just as he was re-arranging his plans and had begun to think of all the exciting places he could go (including Disneyland!), he got caught in the branches of a nearby tree!!
I didn’t see this coming; and, in a moment of parental flubbery, while I thought he would be blown free, I used the sad voice and described how sad he felt with his dashed dreams. “Oh no.” I think he squeaked sadly, “I won’t ever see Mickey Mouse now.” My children’s horrified gasps were mortifying. They begged me, in unison, to free him. The three year-old was in tears. It ended quite badly. I couldn’t find the right words to convince them that he was now happy there. It was sad to see the bag who had once been free and brave now trapped in a tree. But we managed to get beyond it (I think we finally went inside to the dentist). But every time since then that we’ve seen a plastic bag floating by in the wind, we’ve convinced ourselves that “He made it”.
I am glad that Windy is happy with her destination. It sheds a whole new light on the predicament of our “Windy-bag from 1996”. Thank you for your blog. 🙂
June 18th, 2010 at 4:14 am
Alan– That’s the way I’m choosing to look at it!
Nathan — Thanks!
Chris — I’m writing the people at bagsnaggers.com this weekend to see if they’re interested in coming down from NYC, perhaps closer to me than you are. Thanks for the offer!
Dianna — You get it! You understand! Thanks for your story and I love how you got your kids to think of stuck bags differently. And thank God, because it sounded like if you hadn’t, they might be in need of therapy. Thank you for sharing your Windy story. I knew I wasn’t alone.
June 18th, 2010 at 8:33 am
I am a few days late to the party but great job Kathy. I love NPR and wish I had come upon it on the radio first so I could run around the and say hey I know her, not the bag silly. I think after 2 years and 3 months Windy deserves some recognition.
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June 18th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Kudos to you Kathy for shining a light on issues relating to non-decaying waste and their effects on our environment. I heard your story on NPR and just had to write to you. After reading your blog and seeing pictures it is a shame your beautiful campus is spoiled by such litter; however, it seems this is more common than I thought and the strange fascination boggles my mind.
As stated in your interview, as a woman, if you could get “her” down you would. On that statement I must say that every woman I know would never stay up there for this long either. Women are resilient and action takers; therefore, if any gender should be given it should have been male. Just like my husband who leaves his drawers on the bathroom floor every morning; if I wasn’t there nagging him or picking them up myself, they’d stay there for days, weeks, months, or maybe even years.
I wanted to make the argument for all the women out there who might feel like me in that if I was in Windy’s situation, I would do something about it and pick myself up!
I too have witnessed the travels of plastic bags: One day while eating at a local sandwich shop I noticed this white, empty, 30 gallon, plastic trash bag rolling along the parking lot. It appeared to have come from an overturned waste bin and several of the bags were rolling free through the lot. One was stuck around the trunk of a tree and another clearly had a different object to pursue. It was fairly windy that day and this bag was rolling very briskly along in a straight line towards the exit of the parking lot when it made an abrupt left turn and tumbled into an open dumpster bin. I think that this bag could have been given the gender of a female by the way it went where it was supposed to and didn’t even have to stop and ask for directions!!
Thanks!!
June 18th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
KILL THE BAG!
June 18th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Finally, someone who understands. We should start a support group, I guess you already have. What led me to your blog was the NPR radio interview and my own somewhat shameful obsession with a plastic bag. It started when my company moved us to an office, next to a creek. Our conference room looks over the creek and the view is quite lovely.
There is a tree, a dead tree, that hovers over the creek and the first winter we were there- a large plastic bag got stuck, really stuck in that tree. The bag was visible from the conference room and I found it quite disturbing. Every meeting I attended, I was distracted by that bag. The unjust feeling that our view, normally tranquil and serene, now obstructed by plastic.
It was not possible to reach the bag from the shore. The tree and bag are about 200 yards from our window. The bag hung out about 3 feet over the water. You could not get to the bag any conceivable way, except if you were in the creek. I couldn’t get over it. I couldn’t let it go.
It was summer when several of us had gathered in the conference room for pizza. As usual, I was fixated on that bag. “Does anybody have a Kayak?” I heard myself ask. “Yes, I do.” said my immediate co-conspirator. A plan was hatched. People said we were nuts. I’m sure you understand.
Our plan consisted of putting in upcreek, practicing with the anchor and the rather large gardening shears. As with any water manuver, planning and strategy are key. Of course, what we didn’t expect was the crowd that had gathered to watch us remove that bag from the tree, we were nervous. My experienced captain set the anchor, we floated gently up to the tree, with confidence I grabbed those shears, reached up and in one quick motion cut the branch that was holding that plastic captive. It was big, bigger than it looked from the conference room. We gathered it onto the kayak and floated toward our adoring fans, who began to pelt us with water balloons.
The bag is gone, our mission accomplished. It was the combination of restoring the natural view and somehow rescuing that plastic from being so stuck that I found very satisfying.
Thanks for giving me a venue to share my story, with those who appreciate our particular strange obsession.
June 18th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
WOWWWWWWWWWWWW.. I heard You On the radio and was like “Windy the plastic bag is on NPR”. WOWWWW. My DH had the puzzled look on his face, so I explained that your blog is the blog home of windy. that made his face even blanker.
Congrats and You Go Girl !
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June 19th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
When I was listening to NPR and the intro mentioned a plastic bag stuck in a tree for two years I knew who they were going to be interviewing. 🙂
You didn’t sound crazy at all.
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