Certain things just do not mix -- tube socks and ball gowns, bathtubs and blowdryers, potato chips and milk (although my dad would argue the latter). Earth Day and New York City is another combination that is hard to swallow -- although Earth Day and L.A. is an even harder mixture to digest, especially if it were a Sky Day over the Highway celebration.

It’s a good sign that Earth Day exists. It means people are getting scared. They are starting to realize the damage we do when we ravage this planet. Perhaps some are losing that attitude that the earth will only go to pot long after they are dead anyway.

No, it’s going to pot now. Check out the weather patterns (or lack thereof). Since when is it simply "normal" to have 40-degree winters and an almost sub-zero prelude to Spring? What about the water we drink that has to go through 52 processing plants before it hits our Deer Park bottles? Don’t forget the stories about swimming kids avoiding sh-t skids in the East River. It’s becoming one hell of a planet.

Although Calvin & Hobbs once chimed that aliens never contacted us because they are intelligent, I further the notion that they also have immensely powerful telescopes. They have seen what we have done to our poor planet and want to stay as far away from earthlings as possible. They may fear we might wreck the same havoc on their beloved Uranus. Besides, they may figure we are not being fair. Although we have an Earth Day once a year and even a Sunday once a week, what about a Moon Day or a Mars Day or a Stars to the Left of Orion Day?

An annual Earth Day, which seems to squeak by without many people noticing, is simply not enough. The only time I remembered Earth Day was when I worked at Ben & Jerry’s, a company notorious for its stance on preserving the environment. I do not, however, recall doing anything special to enhance such a celebration, although they may have specially issued some zany flavor like "Mud in the Saharan Rainforest (with Coconut Chunks)." Like any specialty flavor, it would have been concocted in limited editions for two weeks only and cost 25 cents more per scoop on a (wholly organic) waffle cone.

So what can we, as bustling and garbage-spewing New Yorkers, do to commemorate Earth Day, not just on April 22, but every day of the year? It is too easy to become that lazy slob who simply throws his peanut brittle wrapper on the subway tracks while rationalizing that one person cannot make a difference, anyway. We have to stop being those people. We have to cut out the selfish and apathetic attitudes.

We can take lessons from other cities. The streets of Europe are so positively pristine that you feel guilty snubbing out a cigarette butt. I recently visited Troy, Michigan where -- although they live in the shadow of a polluted Detroit -- their own streets and sidewalks are debris-free. You can surely go barefoot! When I tried to nonchalantly "drop" my fig bar wrapper in the middle of downtown Royal Oak, my dad promptly picked it up and stuffed it in his pocket. (This is the same man, incidentally, who is married to a woman who once opened the car door in the middle of the road to retrieve litter a fellow motorist had chucked out his own car window. She threw it back inside the man’s car.)

We need not clean up after fellow motorists who may shoot us for such an act, but we can pick up after ourselves, at least. We can also stop spewing so much garbage. The average New Yorker produces four pounds of trash EACH DAY. Say "No" to extra shopping bags when you do not need them. Turn off the water when you are not using it (a crime of which I was guilty three weeks ago, during that "drought"). Remember the recycling laws -- heed them. Volunteer for programs like Adopt-A-Highway, Beautify Brooklyn. Join a food coop, save the whales.

The bottom line is that we CAN, as one little person, do our part to preserve this earth.