I just read an interesting stat on styledash.com that 1 out of 8 men and 1 out of 14 women who work from home, often work in the buff! I find this interesting as when I am not traveling, I work from home. I am also learning of more and more people whose offices have decided to let them work from home to save time and money.

In addition to choosing what to wear, or what not to wear, there are other obstacles to working from home. Challenges - from making sure you motivate yourself when the day starts to slow a little, to not looking into the refrigerator every hour. I began working from home over 4 years ago and like to think I have worked out a lot of kinks in making work from home an efficient day. Friends have also liked to voice their opinions on the best ways to operate throughout my day. My favorite has to be when a friend suggested doing what she and her sister did when they were growing up.

When they were about 10 years old, they were home-schooled for 2 years. Each morning they had to get dressed, eat breakfast, walk out the back door and walk in the front door to start their day! Fortunately for me, I do not have a back door in my NYC apartment, but I have set up a schedule that works for me. My favorite part of the day is the commute; my least favorite is not having an immediate answer if I need it as one may get in an office. Now, as for what I wear to work? Let’s just say I’m happy we don’t have video conferences yet!

 - Alexandra Young, Vice President and Associate Publisher, Global Traveler

I was just chatting with Kevin Ryan, Global Traveler’s trusty accountant from Yampolsky, Mandeloff, Silver & Ryan , since we have not spoken in months. It has been a whirlwind summer of trips to Iceland, Los Angeles, Boston and Savannah. Not to mention small trips by car and train to NYC and NJ.

This week, I take my eldest daughter to college. Like so many parents, I have been searching for stuff for her dorm and trying to set up the logistics. Global Traveler realizes that this is just one phase of a business traveler’s life.  They have to take time to learn about college towns when they are taking their children to universities across the country. We intend to address this in an article titled “College Towns” next year.

The following week I am off to Chicago for a couple of days of meetings. Funny thing about this blog - it is a great way for my competition to keep up with me! In Chicago, I will be staying at the James Hotel, a trendy, full-service hotel at Rush and Ontario Streets.

Until next week, save me an aisle seat and we all hope you enjoy the September issue with the ONLY complete business and first class survey in the country! And don’t forget to vote in our annual reader survey–it’s closing soon.

 -Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO

In the Aug. 21 edition of eFlyer, we have a story about the arrival of Lucy — the 3.5-million-year-old skeleton of what is perhaps an early ancestor — at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. I was fascinated by the find when it first was announced, and pulled out the book from my library; it’s called Lucy, The Beginnings of Humankind, by Donald Johanson and Maitland Edey. Johanson was the anthropologist who found her, in Ethiopia in 1974. The book is still in print, although the idea that she might have been a direct ancestor has been shown to be a bit less likely than was originally thought.

A lot of anthropologists and Ethiopians are less than thrilled that Lucy is being sent on a six-year tour of mostly American museums. One of the reasons is that the Ethiopian people have been only allowed to see her twice. There’s a Lucy exhibit at the Ethiopian Natural History Museum in Addis Ababa, but it’s a replica–her bones were considered too fragile for constant public display. The Ethiopian government decided to send the real Lucy on tour in order to raise money to improve existing museums in Ethiopia and build new ones.

The Smithsonian has been one of the vocal opponents of the tour, worrying about her fragility, so the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. won’t be on the tour schedule. She is expected to “visit” New York, Denver and Chicago as well as other cities, but after Houston the only tentatively scheduled exhibit is at The Field Museum in Chicago from November 2009 through April 2010.

One of the cool things about Lucy is how much of her was found. Johanson discovered 40 percent of her fossilized skeleton, but because different bones were found for her left and right sides, it was possible to reconstruct 70 percent of her skeleton, giving a really good idea of the whole picture. Lucy stood about 3 feet tall, walked upright, and was certainly hominid, although her branch of the family tree–Australopithecus afarensis, to be precise–may have come to a dead end.

 By the way, thank the Beatles for her name. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was playing in the archaeologists’ camp the night she was found. As the oldest and most complete hominid skeleton ever discovered, she really captured the public imagination. She even inspired a 1999 ballet.

Let’s hope she’s up for her travels, and is treated with the reverence she deserves.

-Mary Hunt, Editor, eFlyer

For something that is so essentially global, there’s nothing that brings out Americans’ parochial side like weather. Particularly hurricanes.

I live on the Gulf coast of Florida, and for a week now, we’ve been watching the development of Hurricane Dean. The Weather Channel may take a slightly less biased national view, but the local weather definitely takes the point of view of America First, and the heck with the rest of ‘em.

We watch storm systems form off the coast of Africa. We never care about how they affect weather in Africa–heck, we barely care about Darfur, starvation, genocide in Africa, never mind the weather. Then, to be honest, we root for them to head north in the Atlantic–those folks up North could use some rain, right? Plus, unless they live near riverbanks, the worst they get is power failures (although recent rains showed that in a really hard hit, the New York City subway system could flood…).

Once they clearly head into the Gulf of Mexico, we don’t pay much attention to what Caribbean islands they hit. After 2004, when we got nailed by four big storms (most of which decided they wanted to visit DisneyWorld), we just want them to go ABH–anywhere but here. Katrina changed that, of course; now it’s politically correct for our weathermen to hope they don’t hit New Orleans either.

Right now, it looks like Dean is heading west. Our weathermen are rooting for it to miss Texas and hit Mexico. Guess we send less of our tax money to help out devastated Mexicans than we do to underwater Texans, or something. Or maybe we just want to see FEMA conserve its resources in case the next storm comes here. Or maybe, gee, if Mexico gets a really hard hit, Mother Nature will resolve the immigration issues that Congress doesn’t seem able to.

It’s the old NIMBY syndrome–not in my back yard. When the heck is the average American going to wake up and realize that the whole world is our back yard?

-Mary Hunt, Editor, eFlyer

My time in Mumbai was interesting, to say the very least. It was a world completely different from my own and I definitely experienced a case of culture shock!

On our first day there, it was raining. Just driving to our first destination was an adventure. Driving is completely different in India due to the sheer volume of people. Lanes are virtually nonexistent, and the traffic congestion requires some people to leave their houses two-and-a-half hours early to ensure they arrive on time. Even crossing the street is an adventure — or a game of life and death,  in my opinion. Pedestrians just cross wherever and whenever they feel like it. There are no crosswalks or pedestrian right-of-ways. I just ran behind the rest of my group and hoped for the best.

The sightseeing was lacking a bit, due to the time of the year. The monsoon season prevented us from doing and seeing a lot of the unique sights in Mumbai. I did see the Gandhi Memorial, a temple, an art gallery, the Gateway of India and the Taj Hotel. And, of course, we did some shopping!

Another thing to be prepared for if you are planning a trip to Mumbai is the poverty. To Americans, the poverty is unlike anything you have probably ever seen before. It is pervasive; you cannot escape it. Everywhere you look are tin huts, tents and other makeshift housing. People live near the above-ground sewer systems, under buildings that look near collapse, and on every available bit of sidewalk space. And one certainly would not expect that Mumbai is a city of great wealth by taking a look around. All the buildings are dilapidated and grimy. As a Westerner walking the streets, I could feel the looks and stares from the people, curious at my different dress, and you could see a hint of wonderment in their eyes.

I was a bit unprepared for the animals roaming the streets (chickens, goats, bulls, dogs, cats), but all in all, it was an invaluable experience for me. I am glad I was able to see a world completely different from my own. And, just a short plane ride away, in Kerala, my next destination, is a world, in many senses, that is worlds away from Mumbai. Stay tuned next week!

-Kimberly Krol, Circulation and Public Relations Executive