Posts from — March 2009

This Tuesday, March 17 at 6 p.m., I’m reading with two very talented writers at The Cornelia Street Caféas part of the Writers Room reading series.

6:00PM  WRITERS ROOM
Andy Zeffer, host
New York’s venerable urban writers’ colony presents a monthly reading of new work. This month Jeff’s featured readers include Lisa Montanarelli, Mauria Laurino, and Elizabeth Flock.

Lisa will read an excerpt from a short story titled “The Missing Ear.”

Lisa Montanarelli has contributed features, profiles, and reviews to San Francisco Chronicle, Art and Antiques Magazine, Agence France-Presse, Publishers Weekly, California Literary Review, Colorado Review, and other publications. She co-authored three nonfiction books, including The First Year–Hepatitis C: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed, which she and co-author Cara Bruce revised and updated in 2007. She currently writes a column on economics, personal finance, and environmentalism for YoungMoney.com. Her fiction has appeared in Best American Erotica 2004 and Best American Erotica 2005. Lisa received her B.A. from Yale and her Ph.D. in comparative literature from U.C. Berkeley. Visit her at www.LisaMontanarelli.com.

Maria will be reading from her forthcoming memoir Old World Daughter, New World Mother: An Education in Love and Freedom.

Maria Laurino is the author of Were You Always an Italian?, a national best-selling memoir about ethnic identity, as well as the forthcoming memoir Old World Daughter, New World Mother: An Education in Love and Freedom (W.W. Norton, 2009). A former chief speechwriter to NYC Mayor David Dinkins and a staff writer for the Village Voice, Laurino’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, the Nation, Salon.com, and numerous publications. Her essays have been widely anthologized, including in the Norton Reader.

Elizabeth will read from her just-released book Sleepwalking in Daylight.

Former print journalist Elizabeth Flock reported for Time and People magazines before becoming an on-air correspondent for CBS News. Her acclaimed debut novel, But Inside I’m Screaming, chronically the psychological struggles of a young woman in New York, was released in 2003. Her second novel, Me & Emma, became a New York Times bestseller and was a Booksense Notable Book of 2005. Everything Must Go, Elizabeth’s third novel, loosely based on a men’s clothing store in Connecticut, was published in 2007. Elizabeth’s books have been published in nine countries. Her fourth novel, Sleepwalking in Daylight, will be released on March 1, 2009, and has been chosen as an Indie Next List (formerly Booksense) title for March. Elizabeth Flock lives in New York City.

29 Cornelia Street
New York, NY 10014
212-989-9319

Greenpeace Pressures Toilet Paper Moguls to Go Green

By Lisa Montanarelli

03/09/2009

Inspired by Greenpeace’s new wallet-sized guide to environmentally-friendly toilet paper, the New York Times and the Guardian Unlimited ran stories on February 26 about how U.S. consumers are literally flushing Canada’s ancient boreal forest down the john by using toilet tissues made from virgin wood rather than recycled fiber.

Tissue manufacturers claim that only standing trees can give them the long wood fibers they need to make fluffy luxury tissues like Cottonelle, whose ad campaign features cute puppies and slogans like “Be kind to your behind.” But Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, says, “Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution.” He confirmed that more than 98% of toilet paper sold in the U.S. comes from virgin forests.

The Times and Guardian both emphasized “the tenderness of the delicate American buttock,” in Guardian writer Suzanne Goldenberg’s words. But Greenpeace isn’t just bent on convincing consumers to forgo anal pampering for the sake of the planet. With the Natural Resources Defense Council and other allies, Greenpeace launched the Kleercut campaign (kleercut.net) to pressure Kimberly Clark, the world’s largest tissue-maker, to increase the amount of post-consumer recycled fiber in all its products, stop purchasing virgin wood fiber from endangered forests, and buy it instead from sustainably harvested forests, eco-certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Kimberly Clark, which produces Kleenex, Scott, and Cottonelle, among other brands, is “greenwashing” its image with glowing sustainability reports, while Greenpeace and other organizations have clear evidence that the company is still stockpiling massive numbers of old-growth logs.

Colleges and universities have been among Kleercut’s most eager supporters. So far, thirteen bastions of higher ed have purged their campus buildings of Kleenex and other Kimberly Clark products. On Friday 13, 2009, Purchase College joined the list of participating schools, including Harvard, University of Miami, Rice, American University, Wesleyan, University of California-Berkeley, University of Vermont, University of Florida, and Northern Arizona University.

Meanwhile, Marcal, the nation’s oldest recycled paper producer, is investing $30 million in what it claims is the first national ad campaign for eco-friendly toilet paper. Marketing may indeed be the key to greener bathroom habits. The American butt is as susceptible to advertising as the American mind.