We are super excited to announce that from Wednesday, July 7th through Thursday, July 8th we will be offering three dollars off all t-shirts in our shops! That means every t-shirt, every size, every design!

In order to receive your discount, you need to order directly from our shops and use the coupon code TMINUS3 at checkout.

Links to our shops can be found in the little gray bar running along the very top of this page! ;-)

As with all coupons, here’s the fine print: Save $3 off all T-shirts from CafePress shops, excluding shipping charges, gift wrap charges and applicable sales tax. Coupon code TMINUS3 must be entered at check out. Promotion starts on July 7, 2010, at 12:00 a.m. (PST) and ends on July 8, 2010, at 11:59 p.m. (PST). All orders must be from CafePress shops. Excludes CafePress marketplace purchases (e.g. all products added to cart from URLs beginning with the following (i) http://shop.cafepress.com, (ii) http://t-shirts.cafepress.com and/or (iii) http://www.cafepress.com/sk/), CafePress Groups and bulk orders. Offer cannot be combined with any other coupons or promotions and may change, be modified or canceled at anytime without notice.

I was just listening to NPR and heard a list of suggested summer reading. Two of the books in particular caught my interest: Young Romantics: The Tangled Lives of English Poetry’s Greatest Generation by Daisy Hay, and 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman.

From the Publisher: Young Romantics tells the story of the interlinked lives of the young English Romantic poets from an entirely fresh perspective–celebrating their extreme youth and outsize yearning for friendship as well as their individuality and political radicalism.

The book focuses on the network of writers and readers who gathered around Percy Bysshe Shelley and the campaigning journalist Leigh Hunt. They included Lord Byron, John Keats, and Mary Shelley, as well as a host of fascinating lesser-known figures: Mary Shelley’s stepsister and Byron’s mistress, Claire Clairmont; Hunt’s botanist sister-in-law, Elizabeth Kent; the musician Vincent Novello; the painters Benjamin Haydon and Joseph Severn; and writers such as Charles and Mary Lamb, Thomas Love Peacock, and William Hazlitt. They were characterized by talent, idealism, and youthful ardor, and these qualities shaped and informed their politically oppositional stances–as did their chaotic family arrangements, which often left the young women, despite their talents, facing the consequences of the men’s philosophies.

In Young Romantics, Daisy Hay follows the group’s exploits, from its inception in Hunt’s prison cell in 1813 to its disintegration after Shelley’s premature death in 1822. It is an enthralling tale of love, betrayal, sacrifice, and friendship, all of which were played out against a background of political turbulence and intense literary creativity.

From the Publisher: In 97 Orchard, Jane Ziegelman explores the culinary life that was the heart and soul of New York’s Lower East Side around the turn of the twentieth century–a city within a city, where Germans, Irish, Italians, and Eastern European Jews attempted to forge a new life. Through the experiences of five families, all of them residents of 97 Orchard Street, she takes readers on a vivid and unforgettable tour, from impossibly cramped tenement apartments down dimly lit stairwells where children played and neighbors socialized, beyond the front stoops where immigrant housewives found respite and company, and out into the hubbub of the dirty, teeming streets.

Ziegelman shows how immigrant cooks brought their ingenuity to the daily task of feeding their families, preserving traditions from home but always ready to improvise. While health officials worried that pushcarts were unsanitary and that pickles made immigrants too excitable to be good citizens, a culinary revolution was taking place in the streets of what had been culturally an English city. Along the East River, German immigrants founded breweries, dispensing their beloved lager in the dozens of beer gardens that opened along the Bowery. Russian Jews opened tea parlors serving blintzes and strudel next door to Romanian nightclubs that specialized in goose pastrami. On the streets, Italian peddlers hawked the cheese-and-tomato pies known as pizzarelli, while Jews sold knishes and squares of halvah. Gradually, as Americans began to explore the immigrant ghetto, they uncovered the array of comestible enticements of their foreign-born neighbors. 97 Orchard charts this exciting process of discovery as it lays bare the roots of our collective culinary heritage.

The segment also got me to thinking…and designing. So in honor of lazy summer days in the shade, we’re releasing: Summertime and the Reading is Easy…

We just received this story through a newsletter from PCRM. It’s well worth reading and looking into.

Turner Field Billboard Warns Braves Fans of Cancer-Hot Dog Link

Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Americans typically consume 7 billion hot dogs—818 each second. But a huge billboard near Atlanta’s Turner Field warns baseball fans that chowing down on hot dogs as they watch the games could seriously damage their health. The billboard is sponsored by the Cancer Project, a PCRM affiliate, which also sent a letter asking the stadium to place warning labels at hot dogs stands.

Located on the east side of I-75, the billboard features an image of hot dogs sticking out of a cigarette pack labeled “Unlucky Strike.” It reads: “Warning: Hot dogs can strike you out—for good.”

“A hot dog a day could send you to an early grave,” said Joseph Gonzales, a Cancer Project dietitian. “Processed meats can increase your risk for diabetes, heart disease, and various types of cancer. Like cigarettes, hot dogs should come with a warning label that helps baseball fans and other consumers understand the health risk.”

In 2007, the American Institute for Cancer Research published a landmark report showing that just one 50-gram serving of processed meat (about the amount in one hot dog) consumed daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer, on average, by 21 percent. Every year, about 150,000 Americans are diagnosed with colorectal cancer and approximately 50,000 die of it.

Studies also show a strong link between other types of cancer and processed meats. The NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study last year found that processed red meat was associated with a 10 percent increased risk of prostate cancer with every 10 grams of increased intake. A study in Taiwan, also released last year, showed that consumption of cured and smoked meat can increase children’s risk for leukemia. A study in Australia this year found that women’s risk for ovarian cancer increased as a result of eating processed meats.

A review in the journal Diabetologia last year found that those who regularly eat processed meats increase their risk for diabetes by 41 percent.

To view the billboard, visit CancerProject.org.

Since it’s only far to present a healthier/friendlier alternative to a hot dog, we suggest you check out Veg Product’s Guide to Hot Dogs & Sausage for a listing of alternative dogs that you can boil/fry/grill/dress to your heart’s desire without fear!

Our product offering is changing up a bit and we’re super excited that there will be even more colors for you to choose from! Of course, we’re adding some, and removing others, but we think you’ll be pleased with the new line-up.

You say goodbye…

• Junior’s Fitted T-Shirt Mint
• Junior’s Fitted T-Shirt Creme
• American Apparel Women’s Fitted Organic T-Shirt Cinder

…and I say hello! Hello! Hello!

• American Apparel Men’s Fitted T-Shirt Asphalt
• American Apparel Men’s Fitted T-Shirt Army
• American Apparel Men’s Fitted T-Shirt Heather Gray
• American Apparel Men’s Fitted T-Shirt Navy
• American Apparel Women’s Fitted Organic T-Shirt Pomegranate

Here’s to a more colorful (and friendly) shopping experience!

I found myself wishing I could keep a gift bag forever. Odd? Yes. Hopeless? No. Here’s how I solved my problem – and got a great accessory for my daughter’s room at the same time…

To think, this sweet bag was home to one of my favorite baby shower gifts, and now it’s a designer trash bin in my daughters nursery. The best part of all? I don’t have to re-gift it and say good-bye. Hmm, that makes my love for this bag sound rather freakish, but I’ll bet more folks understand it than not! ;)

A quick synopsis from the network:

An animal-rights activist from San Diego trades places with a Cajun swamp tour owner from Louisiana.

Diana Tregle operates a swamp tour in Thibodeaux, Louisiana. She lives with her husband, Lloyd “Diego” Loupe, and her eight-year-old son, Zamariah “ZZ” Loupe. The family lives with a menagerie of snakes and alligators. Diana worries about the mother she’s swapping families with, because she knows Zamariah can be a handful.

Meanwhile, in San Diego, California, Barbara Gates, a mother, homemaker, and animal-rights activist, keeps a vegan household. She and her family try to abstain from hurting any animals. She lives with her husband Jim, and their children: ten-year-old son, Jack; and daughter Lucy, age eight.

Vegan Barbara Gates samples some Louisiana alligator; and in San Diego Diana Tregle cooks Cajun gumbo vegan-style for the Gates’ friends and family.

In Louisiana Barbara Gates decides to help ZZ with his homework.

Meanwhile the Gates family decides to take Diana Tregle snorkeling. They hope she’ll change her mind about eating animals. Instead, the sight of fish make her hungry.

So I’ll give fair warning that I’ll most likely end up ranting here. If you’re not into that, leave. Leave now and return at a later date. I will get it out of my system and the air will be clear shortly. ;)

A number of things struck me as I watched:

• Diana (Cajun) was far more open-minded and willing to learn about different lifestyles than Barbara (Vegan) I suppose this shouldn’t have surprised me though. I guess I was hoping that veganism was more her code of ethics than her ‘cool Californian’ diet. I don’t think intolerance is an acceptable trait – especially for someone who claims to be open-minded and respectful of all life.
• The get together that Diana (Cajun) was invited to by Barbara’s vegan friends reinforced some unfortunate vegan/vegetarian stereotypes: 1) Veggies are immediately defensive. 2) Veggies would rather make a point than make a difference. 3) Veggies are unwilling to learn/understand more. I was especially disappointed by this segment of the show. It didn’t seem like any of the women even wanted to hear about the Cajun lifestyle. I think now is a good time for a quote:
  

  Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk.
  Doug Larson

• Barbara (vegan) shows an animal cruelty video during a get together at the Loupe’s. Seriously? I understand the importance of awareness and the occasional necessity of watching/sharing these types of documentaries, but when you’re trying to share your lifestyle choices with such a drastically different culture, I think a less extreme introduction would plant a better seed.
• Barbara (vegan) ate alligator while she was with the Loupes and was immediately concerned about what her family would think/say about it. At first I thought, “I’m all for being a strict vegetarian, but fear of one’s own family is a bit ridiculous.” I came to realize at the end of the show, that Barbara is very controlling of her family and their lifestyle. Perhaps she was fearful of mutiny? If my cheap impression of psychoanalyst doesn’t impress, you might be interested to know that when she told her husband and kids about the meat eating incident she became immediately aggravated by their shock/upset and defensive towards their questions.
• I could go on, but I’d rather get this posted (it’s been a draft for far too long.)

I do understand that this one woman is not the spokeswoman for veganism/vegetarianism, but we all need to be aware that individuals from any minority tend to be seen as a just that, a spokesperson. If you choose to live a certain lifestyle, you can (and should?) expect to be judged, questioned and gawked at.

Draw Your Own Conclusion:
‘Vegan Villain’ Speaks Out!
Vegan Represent Forums
Fans of Reality TV Interview with the Loupe Family

We missed it again! Every year we say we’re going to encourage vegetarianism during The Great American (and International) Meatout and every year it passes by. Better late than never – especially when lives hang in the balance! Hey, at least this counts toward Meatout Monday.

On (or around) March 20 — the first day of spring — thousands of caring people in all 50 U.S. states and two dozen other countries get active to host educational Meatout events. Activities include colorful festivals, lectures, public dinners, feed-ins, cooking demos, food samplings, leafleting, information tables and more.

The occasion is Meatout, the world’s largest and oldest annual grassroots diet education campaign. Meatout 2010 is the 25th Anniversary! Every spring, thousands of caring Meatout supporters educate their communities and ask their friends, families, and neighbors to pledge to “kick the meat habit (at least for a day) and explore a wholesome, compassionate diet of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.”

Source: Meatout.org

Avoiding meat has a bigger impact than you might think…

U.S. Slaughter Totals 2008

Cattle: 34,369,000
Chickens: 9,069,382,000
Ducks: 24,165,000
Pigs: 116,458,000
Sheep/Lambs: 2,555,000
Turkeys: 271,625,000
TOTAL: 9.5 billion

Source: The Humane Society of the United States and The National Agricultural Statistics Service

You CAN make a difference! Need a little help going meatless in the kitchen? Try the Post Punk Kitchen & Recipe Zaar!

I just happened upon this great skin and decided that I had to share it with fellow bibliophiles. Then I wandered and found even more skins that tickled my fancy. I started out with the purest intentions to rant about this marvelous bookshelf inspired image for tech gadgets created by the ever talented hand of Colin Thompson and managed to turn it into a gush of love for various artists and the one-dimensional goodies that carry their fine work. Ah well, I tried anyway!

Here are a few of my favorite skins:
- Bookshelf
- Toxicity
- My Pop
- Les Saisons
- Retrospect

Hey folks! We’re quite smitten with our recent ad in the VegNews Marketplace! This is our first national magazine ad – we just had to fluff our feathers. ;)

If you’ve seen us in print, let us know!

Ed Begley, aside from being an environmental activist, has acted in two of our very favorite movies directed by Christopher Guest. For the latter and the former, we love him.

David Blume, permaculture guru and author of “Alcohol Can Be a Gas,” has been the topic of discussion here before. We are BIG fans.

Put them both together (converting a car to run on ethanol, no less) and it’s like heaven. Enjoy!