Galley Cat

Galley Cat

Oreo modeling one of the galleys I received in the mail from Wiley yesterday.

A galley is an uncorrected proof of a book that’s sent to people for endorsements and other stuff. I’m not sure what the other stuff is. I’m new to all of this. I’ll let you know when I find out.

This particular galley has a first chapter that’s probably going to get chopped to hell and a few facts that were a bit off, including one that was about $160 billion off (oops!)….

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Life in the Midwest

A few sights that have made me chuckle and smile in the past week:

1. On a steal horse he rides…

A guy in a cowboy hat driving a mini-van.

2. Farming with Dad

Two discarded kids’ bikes on a country road lying in the ditch, no kids in sight.

“Where are they?”

Out in the field I see a tractor lit by the red rays of a dusty sun, its cab crowded with little farmers.

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Happy Cows More Expensive to Eat

Happy Cow

Annie and I rode our bikes to Scotty’s Brewhouse yesterday. Scotty has a build-your-own-burger option where you can select the type of cheese, condiments, bun, and meat. For $6.75 you can order the groundchuck. For $9.75 you can order meat from grass-fed, free range, happy cows described as such:

half pound grass-fed, $9.75
usa born and raised product. strict animal welfare and animal care protocols. never confined to a feedlot. rather, they are in a “free range environment.” produced without the use of feed grade antibiotics, synthetic growth hormones, or animal byproducts. have never been fed corn or other grain at any time in their lives. packaged at plants that have a documented record in animal welfare, food safety and sanitation. higher in…

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Is it bad when you can't remember the title of your own book?

Really, should I be seeking help?

I can remember the whole Where am I Wearing? part, but it’s the subtitle that always gets me. Let me look it up…

Oh, there it is…A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People that Make our Clothes

The problem I’m having is that we’ve (editor, editor’s assistant, Marketing gurus, Me) considered many different subtitles. The one I originally submitted was: A Global Quest to Meet the People who Made my Clothes. They thought Quest was a little too esoteric so we tried several others. Here’s just a few of the many, many variation of subtitles that were tossed around of the lists I submitted:

A Factory Tour to the Countries that Make America’s Clothes

A Global Quest to Meet the People that…

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American Apparel, a different kind of brand and a pantless CEO

I mentioned AA in the previous post and I write about them briefly in the book. I stumbled upon an excerpt from Rob Walkers soon-to-be-released book Buying In that features a profile of the company. Here’s some excerpts from the excerpt:

…At a moment when practically every clothes maker was offshoring to cut costs, American Apparel made its wares at a U.S. factory in which the average industrial worker (usually a Latino immigrant) was paid between $12 and $13 an hour and got medical benefits. The company had taken out ads in little arty magazines, noting that it was “sweatshop free.”…

…Another self-consciously ethical clothing brand, the union-friendly SweatX, had just gone out of business. The lesson of SweatX, Charney said, was that building a brand solely…

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LA Garment manufacturers fail to comply with labor laws

The Made in USA label doesn’t always mean made under fair and legal labor conditions.

From Occupational Safety and Health Online:

The Labor and Workforce Development Agency announced that Economic Employment Enforcement Coalition (EEEC) investigators issued 42 citations for labor law violations with fines totaling $457,000 in a recent sweep of 22 garment manufacturers in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The coalition said its enforcement actions uncovered serious violations in the industry that included failure to register, pay the minimum wage, maintain worker’s comp insurance, pay overtime, provide itemized deductions to employees, and keep records and post labor notices as mandated by law. In addition, clothing was confiscated at six locations.

“Many of these garment manufacturers failed to comply with the law as we found multiple labor law violations at many…

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Four Years, One Degree, and a Giant Bump on the Head

I’ve been forgetting to link to my monthly Outdoors column in the Dayton City Paper. In this month’s column I return to Oxford, Ohio, home of Miami University where I attended school.

Here’s the intro:

“Should I be wearing a helmet?” I asked my friend Mike standing next to his fancy mountain bike with Rock Shox.

“You’ll be fine,” he said, as he tightened the chin strap on his own helmet, slipped into his gloves, popped in his mouth piece, and adjusted his nut cup.

Fifteen minutes went by as I watched him pad and protect his body. I was wearing shorts, tennis shoes, an unsure smile, and a shirt that was void of dirt, blood, and sap…for the moment. To the onlooker I was either some kind of mountain…

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Look Ma! WAIW? is on Amazon!!

amazon-waiw.jpg

I did a little dance when THIS popped up in my Google update for “Where am I Wearing?”. I tried to leave an “I love it” five-star rating, but it doesn’t show up. I suppose that Amazon won’t let you rate a book before it’s been published. Currently, I’m the only one that knows it’s worthy of an “I love it”. Hopefully, my editor is too. I talk to him soon….

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Author, Freelance Writer, and…Interim HR assistant???

This is my life right now. And it’s why I haven’t posted the last few days.

Today, I spent 6 hours at a conference with people who have all been “screwed over” by the American worker – Lots of bitterness. I’ll post more about this soon.

I talk with my editor at Wiley soon. I’m excited and nervous to hear what he thinks….

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