Progressive Wednesday

Because the climate does count.

We’ve got to give props to the Utne Reader for pointing this sucker out to us. And what is “this sucker” exactly? ClimateCounts.org. And what exactly is ClimateCounts.org? I’m glad you asked, baby:

Climate Counts is a collaborative effort to bring consumers and companies together in the fight against global climate change. We have come together with a shared conviction that the time for talk about global warming has passed, and that significant corporate, consumer, and political action is now necessary.

Our goal is to motivate deeper awareness among consumers–not only that the issue of climate change demands their attention, but also that they have the power to support companies that take climate change seriously–and avoid those that don’t. When consumers take action and raise their voices on issues that matter to them, businesses pay attention. A loud and clear consumer movement that demands more aggressive corporate action on climate change will not fall on deaf ears.

Here’s the meat and the mashed potatoes: Climate Counts provides a listing of major corporations and gives them a score based on their commitment to curbing global warming from within their companies. The scores of the businesses aren’t like they are in golf: a low score is bad to the bone. So I was mouth-agape stunned to learn that the incredibly progressive Apple received a score of 2, while IBM scored a 70 (we’re not making a switch anytime soon, though, for reasons explained below). And I know some folks out there will be glad to know that Coke earned a 57, and Pepsi a lowly 26.

Understandably, we should know who’s behind this service: “Stonyfield Farm, Inc., the world’s leading organic yogurt company” and “Clean Air-Cool Planet, a leading non-profit organization dedicated to finding and promoting solutions to global warming.” So, we’ll count them as reliable sources (Stonyfield Farm only gives themselves a 63, by the way, and they were “America’s first manufacturer to offset 100 percent of its CO² emissions from its facility energy use”).

But we need to keep in mind that when choosing businesses to support with our bucks, we might want to consider other factors such as labor practices, health coverage for employees, and impact on small businesses.

After learning about the scores, consumers can take some actions. Obviously, we can choose whether or not to continue using the products and services of each company, but through ClimateCounts.org we can also easily email the corporations. The latter seems like a useful step to help change our favorite companies without dismissing their products. Because we kind of have a love affair going with Macs, we plan on shooting an e-letter to the Apple folks to urge them to get on the environmental ball. It just goes to show that even the best big-businesses can always be better.

This Wednesday: Reviving Niagara

Problem:

The first years of my memory are of Niagara Falls. We lived on Orchard Parkway in a tiny second-floor house apartment. And as I grew up in the surrounding area, I learned to think of my hometown as the honeymoon and suicide capital of the world.

I grew up with daredevils risking life, limb, and the lives and limbs of their rescuers, by plummeting in various contraptions over the Horseshoe Falls. I saw news reports of poor fools who fell and drown to their deaths on kayaks and jet-skis as they tried to conquer the cataracts. I watched national television coverage of the lawsuits connected to Love Canal, a neighborhood that was the site of one of the worst toxic-waste-dumping scandals in American history.

My first job, as a bakery assistant, was in Niagara Falls at the headquarters of Di Camillo Bakery, a family business still thriving in this city. And I watched as department stores and jewelry stores and restaurants evaporated from Main Street, turning the road into an assortment of seedy bars, adult novelty stores, and boarded up buildings, each empty as the pockets of the homeless wandering the city. And I watched as the factories closed their doors, and added good, hard-working souls to the unemployment lines– ¦.

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Make Progress:

But I also grew up next to a place where people teem to see one the natural wonders of the world. And I grew up in an area where my relatives worked the bluest-collar of jobs, but managed to put lasagna on the table (we're good Italian-Americans, after all). And I grew up where my grandfather landed after traveling the Atlantic to move to America, the same city where my father was raised and remained, the same city where my sister got married. And I grew up next to one of the marvels of electrical science, the Niagara Power Project.

And so I believe in this place. And I love this place. And it's time we all helped this treasure of not just New York, but of America, and not just of America, but of the world. We're ready, if you are, to make progress in Niagara Falls.

• Buy
• Sign
• Give
• E-mail
• Eat

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Editor’s Note: Below you’ll find photos of some of our favorite locations in the city of Niagara Falls.

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The Little Italy neighborhood and business district.

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The genius that is the Niagara Power Project. To learn more about it, click here.

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Di Camillo Bakery, where they make the best Italian bread you’ll ever eat.

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The Niagara River in autumn (if it wasn’t obvious from, you know, the leaves).

Reviving Niagara: Buy

Buy:

For 80 years, The Book Corner has called Niagara Falls home. Since it's inception in 1927, the store has moved twice, but has remained in the Falls. It's the largest independent bookstore in Niagara Falls (and all of Western New York for that matter), and at 10,000 square feet it's one of the biggest privately-owned bookstores where we've ever dropped a dollar. I've been in more bookstores than I can count, and I've never seen anything quite like this. The store has a googolplex of used books for sale (I once snagged a first-edition of Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas at a price far under its “value– ), and they feature one of the most complete collections of books about Niagara Falls that you'll ever see.

Now, unless you live in Western New York, this Wednesday we're not going to recommend you hop on an airbus to Buffalo just to check this place out. Though, if you're a book-lover like me and happen to be in the area, it's worth more than a look-see.

But here's the deal (or the “dealio,– if you prefer): The Book Corner is one of the few businesses surviving on Main Street in Niagara Falls, and Main Street in Niagara Falls is to roads as Bob Hope is to comedians: it's dead. Okay, that's hyperbole. It's dying. No, that's not right either. It's working toward a serious reincarnation, and The Book Corner is a ray of hope.

So, what we're asking you to do is plain as paper and quite simple: please order your books from The Book Corner. Find them however you want online — Amazon, Powells, Barnes and Noble, Borders — but place your order through The Book Corner. They'll even gift-wrap the book or books for nothing, nada, zilch — in other words, for free, my peeps. If you want, you can also order books they have in stock through AbeBooks and get free shipping.

And if you're trying to find an out-of-print book or a book whose title is fuzzy, turn to Pete and Jeff Morrow. Skilled as librarians, they'll find your tome of choice. I've placed several orders through the shop for poetry books that were either out-of-print or printed by an obscure press, and they've dug and hunted and found me what I was after.

But don't just take our word for it, you can read some reviews by clicking here or here. Or you can take the New York Times’ word for it – “ they describe The Book Corner as “a beacon of light in the pall of the blight.– And lest we forget, you can take a tour of this fantastic store by playing the video below. So much to read, so little time– ¦

Reviving Niagara: Eat

Eat:

That should probably read “Mangia,– because Niagara Falls, New York is famous for it's Italian eateries. The Como Restaurant was even featured on the Food Network. And the Little Italy section of the city is larger than the one in New York City, and believe you me when I say that I don't exaggerate when it comes to food.

We've eaten Italian food in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Cleveland, Tampa, Columbus, the District of Columbia, Chicago, Las Vegas, Trenton, Newark, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, and nothing, nothing comes close to the variety or quality of the Italian food you'll find in Niagara Falls.

Whether you live in Omaha and you're planning a trip to see this natural wonder of the world, or if you live in Erie County, just steer clear of the homogenized junk served up at Applebees, Texas Roadhouse, Don Pablo's, and The Olive Garden, and hit the privately held establishments in the Falls. Gobble some gnocchi, Fettuccine Alfredo, chicken Parmesan, or good old spaghetti and meatballs at the Como, Michael's, Fortuna’s, Macri's Italian Grille, Gagster’s, Good Fellas Pizzeria, La Bruschetta– ¦.

The list goes on and on and on and on, and what a tasty list it is.

How to Read Nonfiction Progressively

Problem:

There are hundreds (probably thousands) of strong progressive books published each year, and you might not know where to begin. Or you might know where to begin, but not where to end. Or you might know where the middle is but…. Nevermind. You get the idea.

So please consider this just a humble snippet of what’s available and a primer for where you might shop.

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Make Literate Progress:

Let’s cut right to the French-Connection chase — here are four great reads we adore, each of which encouraged us to make progress happen:

1. Fast Food Nation, the New York Times best-seller by Atlantic Monthly reporter Eric Schlosser, dissects the fast-food industry, and reveals an ugly, hidden interior. Schlosser writers with objective passion, honesty, superb support defending his claims, and first-hand narrative. I’m awed by the depths to with fast food has altered our country, almost under our noses. How we missed the stink is beyond me after reading this tome. The book starts at the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in Colorado and ends with simple solutions for ending the power of fast food. In between, he tackles the origins of the business, advertising to children, the fast-food workforce, franchising, produce farms, flavoring, cattle ranches, poultry farms, meatpacking, food poisoning, and globalization. We dare you (no, we double-dog dare you) to eat at McDonalds after reading Schlosser’s account.

2. As the parent of a daughter, Eric was blown away by Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs, a keen analysis of the “raunch culture” and its impact on, in particular, girls and women. Her narratives depicting Girls Gone Wild and the adult industry will peel back your eyelids a bit. In short, Levy argues that, to a certain degree, some women have essentially injured American women in general by participating and celebrating objectification. It’s witty, shocking, well-researched, and enlightening.

3. The heartfelt story-telling and research in Ordinary Resurrections, a book written by Jonathan Kozol, quite literally, overhauled Matt’s attitudes about education, poverty, racism, contemporary segregation, prison, and children. Kozol spends a great deal of time with elementary students in the Bronx, and his narrative deftly demonstrates the impact of under-funded schools on the lives of innocent kids. It’s a tough read at times (the stories vary between horrifying and glorifying), but worth it every your-time-is-money moment of it. Kozol’s not just out to change the way you feel; he wants you to take action, and his solution arcs through the entire book.

4. Okay, this last one might not be overtly progressive in that it’s a somewhat sardonic read, but Fran Lebowitz’s first two books, Metropolitan Life and Social Studies, pretty much make us cry with laughter. We’d like to recommend The Fran Lebowitz Reader, which collects her first two books together. Here’s how this book strikes us as progressive: in America, women are actively and tacitly discouraged to be this kind of funny. Lebowitz clearly cares less about social norms; in fact, she tends to criticize the norm throughout her erudite, wise and wry writings. (For more of her humor, you can read an interview here.)

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Some Ways and Means:

1. Soft Skull Press is the place progressives ought to start their search for books that will fit right in their wheelhouses. Soft Skull prints books of fiction, poetry, and art which all rock, but for right now we’ll focus on the nonfiction stuff we’re thankful that they crank out. These days, we’re in the middle of two of their fantastic reads: Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground and The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman. We’ll pop out reviews of each in a week or so, but let’s just say these books have us nodding our heads with each page. Soft Skull a press that requires any true progressive’s attention, and you can check out their catalog by clicking right over here.

2. Chelsea Green is suddenly one of our favorite presses: a small but vibrant independent publishing house, featuring nonfiction “focused on the politics and practice of sustainable living.” What does sustainable living mean to Chelsea Green? It means books about protecting small farms, the reinvention of cities, eco-friendly homes, and solar energy. They also have books about progressive linguistics, and, most importantly, solutions for folks who love our country and our planet. You might want to start by ordering or downloading a free catalog.

3. Do check out The New Press, a not-for-profit book publisher in the vein of PBS and NPR, doling out “ideas and viewpoints under-represented in the mass media.” These folks are all about getting progressive texts into the hands of as many folks as they can, and money the press earns is funneled directly back into publishing the work of others. You can find inspiring work like Alice Walker’s (yes, that Alice Walker) We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For and Studs Terkel’s Giants of Jazz, along side more overtly political books such as Dream: Re-imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy by Stephen Duncombe. (We’re also very interested in getting around to reading Rednecks & Bluenecks: The Politics of Country Music by Chris Willman.) The body of work they’ve published demonstrates a concern for conservationism, fair trade, and the development of new pharmaceuticals. Their catalog (which includes fiction and children’s books, amongst other kinds of writing) won’t disappoint.

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And As Always…

You also have these resources available to you to help find progressive nonfiction in general, or on specific topics you’re concerned about:

• Ask us. We’re here for ya.
• Ask the folks on progressive message-boards and blogs like Daily Kos.
• Ask a librarian online, 24/7. You can type in 44114 as your zip code (that’s a Cleveland, Ohio zip).

Photo clicked by this literature lover.

Super doughnuts to the rescue!

When I was a vegan, the thing I pined for the most wasn’t a hamburger, or mater paneer, or a full-stack of pancakes. No, it was doughnuts. And not the Dunkin’ kind or the Krispy kind, but the kind fried up by my hometown’s DiCamillo Bakery.

Franco Harris (yes, the same Franco Harris that rumbled the ball as a running back for the Steelers‘ dynasty in the ’70s) has designed a doughnut that’s at least kinda good for you.

As he puts it in a Houston Chronicle article:

“I started my company, Super Foods, in 1990 with the goal of improving the doughnut. Instead of demonizing the doughnut and eliminating it from our diet, why couldn’t we make one that gives you minerals, vitamins and protein?”

First, I capital-L Love that the goal of his company for the past 17 years has been to improve the doughnut. I find that oddly profound and completely ridiculous at the same time. But I’ll be damned if these crullers ain’t a bit better for you.

Each sugary and fat-filled concoction is chocked full of vitamins, minerals, and seven grams of protein. They contain no artificial colors, artificial flavors, preservatives, or trans fats. And where, pray tell, can you find them? Well, these suckers are sold in the freezer section of grocery stores in the western sections of the Keystone State, and Harris plans to expand nationally. I will be sure to check these out, because I owe it to my tongue and gullet.

At the same time, I’m sure there’s a cardiologist out there (with a file just waiting for my name) that’s glad to hear I won’t be giving up my completely unhealthy doughnuts any time soon. Are they progressive? Not really — they’re like eating cigarettes. Are they the dessert from the heavens? I think you know the answer to that one.

Photo by this donut-loving dude.