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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