Here’s what you need to know about this picture:
– Sammy is a 15-year-old lab that acts like she’s a puppy despite suffering coon dog paralysis 8 years ago, which has left her with some wobbly back legs.
– For some reason and somehow Sammy managed to walk from my parents woods a half-mile across a muddy field.
– She got stuck in the mud.
– She’s lucky that I spotted her.
– She’s lucky to be alive. After all she has been through she deserves a peaceful exit, not one involving freezing to death in a muddy field.
– When I got to her I stepped out of both of my shoes. As Dad put it, “That kind of mud could kill a man.”
– Mom tried to…
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With Valentine’s Day approaching the International Labor Rights Fund is bringing attention to the cocoa industry of West Africa:
People around the world share a love of chocolate, one of the most delicious and pleasurable foods on earth. Thousands of children in West Africa are forced to labor in the production of cocoa, chocolate’s primary ingredient. The West African nation of Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is the leading supplier of cocoa, accounting for more than 40% of global production. Low cocoa prices and thus the need for lower labor costs drive farmers to employ children as a means to survive. The US Department of State estimates that more than 109,000 children in Cote d’Ivoire’s cocoa industry work under “the worst forms of child labor,” and that…
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I just learned that the first NPR station I listened to WMUB at Miami University is going belly up. Well, maybe not so much belly up as consumed by its sister station in Cincinnati. Still, this is depressing news.
As someone who takes little nuggets of ideas and turns them into stories from 500 to 70,000 words in length, NPR is one of my most valuable resources. Every day I gain a few little extra nuggets. Here’s what I learned within a few hours the other day:
– Edgar Allen Poe was well respected for his original talent during his lifetime, but not particularly paid well. The main reason was the poor international copyright laws. U.S. newspapers and magazines would snatch stuff that appeared in…
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An interview with me appeared in Cambodia’s Phnom Penh Post this past Friday.
Read it
The article mentions that a local bookstore will be carrying the paperback version of WAIW? in April. That’s news to me. I haven’t heard either if or when WAIW? will be out in paperback. I hope it’s right. If a hardcover doesn’t sell well, they won’t release it in paperback. So, the release of WAIW? in paperback will be a confirmation that Wiley is happy with it. Plus, $25 is just too much to pay for a book, even mine. Unfortunately, a lot of bookstores are selling books at their cover price. The paperback will probably be priced at around $16.
Speaking of types of books….
I got an…
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Today, I’m 30.
I’m cool with that. I’m glad to be 30.
My 20’s were good to me, but I won’t miss them.
Back in 1999 I was a junior at Miami University. I watched the Travel Channel religiously and especially enjoyed Alby Mangels’ show Adventure Bound. It was around this time during which I decided I wanted to go places that I actually considered joining the NAVY. I liked boats, liked water, wanted to travel. Why not?
Jimmy Buffett saved me. That’s kind of embarrassing to admit, but it’s true. I had listened to Buffett in the past, but I really started to feel the music. I wanted to escape somewhere tropical, have adventures, and fly by the seat of my pants….
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Where Am I Wearing? continues to (not) win the hearts and minds of Europeans.
Bridget Hourican, a freelancer for the Irish Times, reviewed WAIW?
Her headline: This guide for the ethical clothes shopper is a bit ragged at the seams
Unlike the FT’s review, hers was thoughtful and seemed to connect with the book. She writes, “Timmerman puts faces on the garment industry. This needs doing and he has the warmth, compassion and interest in other cultures to do it.”
But overall she was hoping for a guide to ethical shopping, and WAIW? is not what she had hoped:
An interest in people is nice but can’t replace interest in textiles. At one factory three men examine his underwear. “They pull them, stretch them, rub the fabric between their fingers, examine seams,…
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J.T. Ryder wrote a great review of WAIW? in the Dayton City Paper. In the interest of full disclosure, I contribute a monthly Outdoor column to the paper so: 1) They like my writing. 2) If they called me an ignorant moron, it might not be so good for our working relationship.
(The interview will only be up for a few days, so catch it why you can)…
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Rolf Potts featured me as Travel Writer of the month for January on his website.
I was excited to do the interview because I remember scanning through Rolf’s collection of travel writer interviews when the possibility of writing something that someone would pay me $1 for was a distant dream.
To share the love: If you love a good travel yarn, Rolf’s new collection Marco Polo Didn’t Go There is a lot of fun….
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It seems like a simple and reasonable idea: if the stimulus is going to use tax payer money to rebuild infrastructure why not use American steal?
Senator Sherrod Brown who knows good ideas (and books – he blurbed mine) when he sees one had this to say (from a story in the Columbus Dispatch):
Saying he couldn’t understand why anyone would oppose it, Sen. Sherrod Brown defended a section of the stimulus bill that would require using American steel in all new projects financed by the measure.
With the Senate expected next week to approve its $887 billion version of a bill aimed at sparking the economy, the “Buy American” section is prompting fears of protectionism among U.S. companies and America’s trading partners, such as Canada and Europe.
“It’s pretty clear that…
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Matt of Nomadic Matt has launched a new website: How To Travel the World.
The site’s tagline is “Get informed. Get Going,” which is opposite to how I often travel, “Show up. Scratch head.” So, I definitely could use a little of what this site has. Here’s the site in their own words:
Looking to take a gap year or another round the world adventure but not sure where to start? Look no further. This website is here to answer all your questions about how to travel around the world, gap years, backpacking, and the nomad way. We have suggested routes, advice on how to travel cheaply, meet other travelers, and much more.
…
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