In celebration of Earth Day Saturday, we’d like to point out one of the most offending products on the plant – the obnoxiously loud, pollution-spewing gas-powered mower. The U.S. government says push mowers emit as much hourly pollution as 11 cars, and a riding mower emits as much as 34 cars. Gag! One alternative is the Neuton, a cordless electric model that we switched to last year (now available for $20 off at $379). Its positives extend beyond its Earth-friendliness: it’s lightweight and easy to manage, less noisy than a gas engine (its motor “whirs”) and when you turn it off after mowing your hands don’t vibrate for 20 minutes. Elsewhere, our Canadian Shopperati can participate in The Home Depot Canada’s 6th annual Mow Down Pollution lawn mower recycling and rebate program. HD helps Canadians to “go green” by helping them recycle older, higher polluting lawn mowers and trimmers. And for more background on how we Americans fuel this massive, self-inflicted problem, check out American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn (Norton, $15.72 at Amazon). Author Ted Steinberg, an environmental historian at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, skewers our lawn-care obsession that drives a $40 billion industry… and a lot of environmental damage.

Because the Shopperati are the most demanding and discerning shoppers, we know you are already plugged into the need to use products that eliminate or reduce damage to the enviroment. To that end, we have created a Green Shopping area with links to Green Shopperati and stores that specialize in environmentally sensitive products. Of course, mainstream retailers are getting with the program too, as evidenced by this how-to guide for insulating your home from Lowe’s. You’ll also find a lot of great general tips and info about energy-saving appliances at the government’s Energy Star site. Happy Earth Day.

Mom’s Day is just 24 days away. Still time to drop hints early and often. Our first idea: Bare Escentuals gift sets that include eye liner, eye shadow, face color and lipstick, packaged by decades for women in their 20s, 30s, 40s etc., and offered by Sephora. The only problem here is that the color combinations might not be right for you even if the age fits. I like the 50s colors better than the kit relegated to my age group. So take the decade label with a grain of salt. Now if your make-up bag already overflows, let’s talk chocolate. Tell the family about Schakolad, an Orlando-based sweets phenomenon (and another hard-to-spell brand name) which sends fresh chocolate out from its local stores, which are now in 12 states, including Texas. Ymmm for us!

Efficiency-oriented Shopperati will be watching a new search engine now in beta testing. ShopWiki says it will crawl more than 120,000 stores “to ensure you find the best product and price available.” From our own experience we know that “crawling stores” can be painful, but someone’s got to do it. Anyway, the new service, which we’ve added to our list of search engines, will scan the Internet, searching more than 300,000 Web sites, to find more stores and show results only from “true retail outlets.” ShopWiki also plans a wiki component to encourage its users to add their info to buying guides. Not much in the way of wiki activity there yet, but we tried a few sample searches and were pleased with a bevy of useful results. A potentially promising tool.

Blog browsing this a.m. we kept running across vintage clothing. First, we were wandering in the Blogdorf Goodman blog (easiest to say after a couple drinks). This girl is a self-confessed perfume addict with “too many coats” and a readership that shares an interest in vintage clothing. OK. So that reminded us to perfume our old coats and also to mention these neat retro shops we found earlier: Dandelion Vintage and Retro Gal Fashions. Next, we took The Daily Stoll, a blog and shopping guide for mommies (with strollers, get it?), where we found a store, Jen Klair Kids, selling, of all things, vintage embroidered pillowcases being fashioned into dresses for tots ($41.95, unique, billowy and gift-worthy). Coincidence? We don’t think so.

Trying to get corn off the cob can be a real pain — if not an outright dangerous undertaking. (OK, perhaps my knife skills are less than stellar.) Kitchen Contraptions found this nifty gadget that strips off the kernals and expands to fit any size cob. Why go to all that trouble, you ask? Well, some people just don’t like eating corn off the cob (too unglamorous) and others — like my son who cracked his front teeth in a soccer “death match” — can’t. For $6.99, you get an inexpensive and simple solution.