On WHAM-TV in Rochester

I rolled off the couch this morning at the hospital and phoned in an interview. The video loads on the top right. Give it a watch….

Introducing Harper Willow Timmerman

Annie and I are proud to announce the arrival of our first child – Harper Willow Timmerman. She arrived on 1-6-09 at 8:33 PM after nearly 24 hours of labor. (Annie was a trooper, although I must admit, I did a heck of a job running down cups of ice chips and counting to ten.) Harper weighs in at a healthy 7lbs 10oz and measures 22 inches long.

In related news…my heart melted.

(More photos on Flickr)

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Pardon my absence for the next few days…

My wife is in labor!

Now’d be a great time to buy a copy of my book “Where Am I Wearing?” This way I can tell my daughter, “Sweetie, on the day you were born, your dad sold more books than Joe the Plumber.”

To which she’d respond,”Who’s Joe the Plumber?”…

Creator of the Hawaiian shirt dies

From the International Herald:

Alfred Shaheen, a pioneering textile manufacturer credited with creating the modern Hawaiian garment industry, has died at age 86.

As tourists from the mainland flocked to Hawaii after World War II, many began to bring home colorful but cheesy looking shirts and sundresses that would be cause for much amusement among friends.

The great thing about a Hawaiian shirt is that when you’re wearing one life is good. It’s about the happiest garment there is. You’d never wear a Hawaiian shirt to a boring business meeting or a funeral. (Actually, come to think of it, I think I have wore a Hawaiian shirt to a funeral in Key West.) Still, most of the time life wearing a Hawaiian shirt is peaches ‘n’ cream.

Aloha, Alfred.

Will economic struggles reverse gains in labor rights?

Maybe.

Here’s a report from the Philippine’s Business World newspaper:

Business leaders — particularly Messrs. Schumacher, Valenzuela, and Young — also called for flexible labor rules.

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines has called for the temporary suspension of a provision in the Labor Code which prohibits lowering the amount of benefits an employee receives. The Joint Foreign Chambers, meanwhile, plans to stage talks with the Labor department, labor groups, and firms on options such as job rotation, forced leaves, and shorter work hours to avert layoffs.

“Labor policies must … not take away from the competitiveness of our industries,” Mr. Young said.

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CONTEST: X-mas tag Bingo

Be honest, did you look at the tags on all of the clothes you received for Christmas this year?

Whether you did or not, you’re eligible for the 2nd Annual Where Are YOU Wearing? Christmas Contest of Destiny. This year we’ll be doing something a bit different.

Like last year’s contest, you’ll gather all of the clothes you got for Christmas and inventory what you got and where it came from (country and brand) and post it in this comment thread. But this year we’ll be playing Bingo.

Here’s how to play

I’ve created a Bingo card with 16 countries and regions (a sample is below), if your list gets you four in a row, you have a chance to win.

Once the final card is posted (to be announced later),…

The Smart Stitch revolutionizing garment production in Bangladesh

Watch the Onion’s report on the Smart Stitch, a garment factory in your hand, which allows workers to work 22 hours day, not just 16!

Highlights:

“Now I can keep working until I pass out from exhaustion,” one worker said.

As the use of Smart Stitch has risen, food shortages have declined, and whippings have leveled off.

“Now that my workers use the Smart Stitch, their whole lives belong to me,” said one factory owner. “I feel like a God.”

(How much fun would it be to write for the Onion?)…

Fantasy Kingdom on Neatorama

My CSMonitor piece on Fantasy Kingdom is getting some love over at Neatorama….

The struggle of buying Fair Trade in an economic crisis

Musician Rorie Kelly summed up one of the major dilemmas of fair trade in her recent post, I can’t afford to have principles. Like many, Rorie is struggling to get by in our down economy. The struggle in Rorie is the struggle in every engaged consumer.

Rorie writes…

Hey man, if you can’t even really afford to put food on your table and you need to buy a nice pair of pants so you can keep your job, it’s OK with me if you spend $20 on sweatshop pants rather than go without eating for a few weeks. And that’s about where I’m at right now.

After years of exercising that principle while living on a low income in an incredibly expensive city, and then losing my independent living…

My first ad!

The good folks at Wiley & Sons have placed a two-page spread in Relevant Magazine.

The small box on the bottom left reads:

Journalist and traveler Kelsey Timmerman wanted to find out. So he canvassed the globe to put a personal face on the controversial issues of globalization and outsourcing. Whether bowling with workers in Cambodia or riding a roller coaster with workers in Bangladesh, Timmerman bridges the gap between impersonal economic forces and the people most directly affected by them. You’ll never see your wardrobe the same again.

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