Gabriel Thompson's Blog, page 4

On Earned Citizenship

After a nice ten-day break from the blog, I'm back and getting increasingly excited for the impending publication of Working in the Shadows. Later today, I hope to actually lay hands on a finished copy of the hardcover book for the first time, and will probably sleep with it next to my pillow, as I used to do with new pairs of shoes as a kid.

Right now, priorities include getting together a "book trailer" (a short video that introduces the book to people who evidently don't like to read…don't...

Why Go Undercover? This NY Times Article Makes the Case

I've been asked dozens of times whether the companies I worked for during the book knew my real agenda. I usually laugh and say, "Of course not."

No employer–or at least none of the employers in the industries I was exploring–was going to agree to let an unsupervised journalist hang around. There's a reason companies have public relations departments, and that reason is to control their message. Since I didn't want to be controlled, and I certainly didn't want to create more work for the PR...

Roadkill & Other Fun Topics

Another round of photos from each job location:

Making Friends with Traffic

Of all the threats to cyclists on the road, I found New York City buses to be surprisingly safe. Sure, they are big, and that bigness takes a while to get used to. But unlike cab drivers or just about every other vehicle on the road, their operators generally seem to follow a defensive driving orientation. By that, I mean that they are in the uncommon habit of looking for cyclists or pedestrians before changing lanes...

Undocumented and Thriving

I came across an interesting article in the New York Times yesterday about a Paraguayan who had lobbied for a job in the consulate office of New York. The individual, Augusto Noguera, seemed to lead a model immigrant life: he ran a section of a construction company, was involved in various non-profit organizations, and even hosted elected officials in his home when they visited from Paraguay.

Noguera clearly had political ambitions in all this, and finally got his wish for an administrative...

Publisher's Weekly Reviews the Book!

I found out yesterday that Publisher's Weekly reviewed Working in the Shadows. Although this is my third book, the intensity of the feelings I suffer–and suffer is the perfect word–between the time I learn of a review and actually read it has never diminished.

Those feelings swing between two poles, elation and dejection, based on two possibilities:

Possibility A: They will absolutely love it. Even better, they just might say it's the greatest piece of writing they've ever encountered. They...

Mountain Dew Mouth

One of my best friends in Alabama was a guy who I call Kyle (all the names or workers and supervisors in the book have been changed). I noticed early on that Kyle really liked Mountain Dew. Each night when he picked me up for work, Kyle was gulping down a can. During any 24-hour period, he consumed at least six.

At first I thought it was just his little quirk, but soon learned that everyone drank Mountain Dew. At the plant, next to dispensers of every sort of pain killer you might need to...

A Glimpse Inside a Chicken Plant

One of my major regrets regarding the book is not having had the chance to take photos inside the Pilgrim's Pride plant in Russellville, Alabama. There have been several instances when I've felt completely overwhelmed while trying to describe a scene using only words. Walking into a chicken plant that can kill and dismember up to 1.5 million birds a week was certainly one of those times. Here's how I describe my first moments on the processing floor:

Superhero comics aren't complete without...

Good Press, Bad Christians

I'm a longtime reader and very occasional contributor to In These Times, the radical magazine out of Chicago. A few years back, I got to profile a man for the publication named Jeff Monson. Monson, an anarchist and an activist, also happens to be a world class mixed martial artist.

While the words anarchist and activist might evoke images of skinny kids wearing black who wouldn't last a minute in a fight (that's me), Monson looks like a cartoon ready to pop, a compressed giant of crazy...

Web Dealings with the Mexican Haters

I have a very strange email relationship with a certain somebody in North Dakota. This person, who I'll call Mr. Anti-Mex, is a family friend of some sort that I've never quite figured out (my dad's side of the family hails from the Dakota farming town of Colfax). Ever since he first heard that I wrote about immigrants, he's placed me on his long list of email contacts and regularly sends me diatribes against immigrants. Most are simply forwards of forwards of forwards, often screaming in...

Something Rotten in Park Slope

Last week, New York State's Department of Labor issued a press release announcing the findings of a recent investigation of restaurants in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope. From the release:

In April 29, 2009, sixteen Department of Labor investigators paid surprise visits to 25 restaurants and coffee shops along Fifth and Seventh Avenues, from late afternoon to ten o'clock at night. Only two of the restaurants were found in compliance, while 23 had minimum wage, overtime, and other...