Following the suspension of operations at the plants, members of the media and leaders that included Governors from meat-producing states were invited to tour the facilities in an attempt to repudiate what they called “inaccurate information” that they claimed as having caused “an unnecessary panic among consumers.” The publicity tour emerged with the promotional slogan, “Dude, it’s beef!”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said after the tour “Let’s call this product what it is and let ‘pink slime’ become a term of the past,” after which officials showed off t-shirts with the slogan, “Dude, it’s beef!”

“I think a big part of the campaign problem has been the other side has had a catchy name,” Kansas Governor Sam Brownback said. “I hope, ‘Dude, it’s beef,’ catches on because that’s what this is. Dude, it’s beef.”

In response to this, the Mohawk Valley Trading Co. (MVTC) has partnered with custom t-shirt printer Crooked Brook to sponsor a “Dude, It’s Not Beef!” T-Shirt Giveaway.

This white, 6.1 oz., 100% cotton t-shirt is printed with Direct to Garment printing (DTG) technology which uses eco-friendly, water soluble ink that bonds to the molecules of the fabric, unlike most screen printing which layers Plastisol (a suspension of PVC particles in a plasticizer) on top of the t-shirt. DTG allows photographic quality printing with no setup fee or minimum you can order as few as one custom t-shirt.

The winner will be chosen randomly, from those who post a comment on MVTC’s LocalHarvest Blog with an answer to this question; What do you think about “Pink Slime”?

Detroit — A downtown bar will keep selling t-shirts that feature the likeness of Tigers manager Jim Leyland wearing an Old English D cap until the team’s legal department delivers documents saying it can’t.

Grosse Pointe Park native Louis Colombo, owner of The Dirty Trick at Woodward and East Adams, said Tuesday afternoon he can’t produce enough shirts of Leyland with a lit cigarette dangling from the left side of his mouth to meet the demand he has received from across the country in the past 24 hours. “I never thought people would get on board with this like they have,” said Colombo, a married father of seven children and Tigers season ticket holder. “We’re getting calls from people in Arkansas. “I’m not a clothier; I sell booze. Right now, everyone is talking about my bar — 10 days before Opening Day.”

The buzz over a $22 T-shirt— not authorized for sale by the Tigers — could end soon, though, because the team’s law department is expected to deliver Colombo a cease-and-desist order this week.

The Dirty Trick opens at 4 p.m. Tuesday, the time sales of the shirt are expected to resume. Colombo, however, has a feeling he could be greeted at the door Tuesday by a team official with the order, forcing him to likely tweak the shirt’s design so his business can avoid a lawsuit. “If we get the order, we’ll work toward a solution,” said Colombo, whose bar began Monday night taking shirt orders over the phone. “Our plan would be to take the D from our bar logo and put it on Leyland’s hat.” That’s one option, but Colombo might be forced to do more tweaking because a representative of the Tigers’ legal team told him the team also has a problem with the fact an image resembling Leyland is on the shirt. “As an employee of the Detroit Tigers, they will be representing the manager,” said Colombo, reiterating what he said a team official told him. It’s unclear what Leyland thinks of the shirts.

It’s no secret Leyland smokes. Leyland’s pal, longtime manager Tony La Russa, told The News in February that his goal for Detroit’s manager heading into the season was for Leyland to quit the habit. “My goals are to get him to eat tofu and stop smoking,” La Russa said of Leyland, who coached on La Russa’s staff with the White Sox in the early 1980s. Leyland, at the time, found plenty of humor in his friend’s comments. “You guys don’t know it,” said Leyland, “but I didn’t start smoking until I coached for him.” Colombo said the bar sold about $500 worth of Leyland shirts during the Tigers’ playoff run last fall, and has received positive reviews from Tigers players, opposing players and visitors of the bar who claim to be Leyland’s relatives. The shirts have been flying off the shelves so fast this week, Colombo doesn’t know how many the bar has sold. – The Detroit News, March 27, 2012

Get your tee here:

Jennifer Lawrence ‘Hunger Games’ Madrid Premiere: She Wears Victoria Beckham. The stylish star was the lastest a-lister to don a dress by the celeb designer — and she looked schoolgirl chic!

While Hunger Games proved to be an enormous hit here in the US, Jennifer Lawrence is still at work promoting her latest film! Her most recent stop was in Madrid, where she turned up on the red carpet on Mar. 26 for the premiere. While she’s worn a slew of gorgeous gowns, Jennifer showed off a different look, opting for a cute yet edgy Victoria, Victoria Beckham Fall 2012 mini.

Looking like a stylish schoolgirl, Jennifer’s jacquard drop-waist, striped t-shirt dress boasted hues of blue, grey and orange. She gave the sweet dress an edgy vibe, pairing it with black Brian Atwood booties. I love seeing another side of Jennifer — and I think she pulled off this mini flawlessly! When wearing something with such a sweet and girly vibe, I think it’s important to pair it with something edgy, and in this instance her booties were a fantastic choice.

Listen as Alex describes what each dollar of shirt sales goes towards and how the communication platforms in Africa can be built to keep families safe with your help. Visit MASScanvas for special contests and prizes including a bass guitar signed by Pete, Fall Out Boy vinyl, and signed winning t-shirts throughout the next two weeks! They’ll also be announcing details on the SUPER LIMITED EDITION HOODIE designed by Pete himself.

This is a nifty toaster from spinninghat.com:

Are you stuck in that age old predicament of wanting to be rid of your banged up old toaster and AT THE SAME TIME wanting to pay tribute to those consoles of your childhood? Remember your childhood plumber buddy, Mario, and his ridiculously good looking red dungarees? And what about those snazzy mushrooms? We couldn’t get over the ultra cool retro pixilation effect that Nintendo used on the game. They were just too ahead of their time! Just HOW did they know that would be today’s fashion??

Ever since the cool trend that is Mario was launched by Nintendo, it has been kept alive by old school and new school fans alike. It has inspired the costumes worn at so many of those costume parties and we think it will forever be the coolest and most iconic retro game out there.

At Spinning Hat we’ve researched the most loved items encountered in every day life, and – surprisingly – they turn out to be toast and games. We put our heads together and decided to put the two together in the form of this retro classic SNES Toaster. Each and every piece of bread you magically turn into toast in it will, without a doubt, have a Mario character embedded into it. The Toad, Mario, Luigi or the sex-goddess that is the Princess. Your breakfast can now bring those characters to life. spinninghat.com.

The slogan on the t-shirt appears to be a lyric from the rapper’s song, 100 Years, which he used to describe racist judges who hand down excessive prison sentences to black defendants. The contentious t-shirt is allegedly on sale in Florida.

The word cracker, sometimes white cracker, is a pejorative term for white people, poor and Southern whites especially. In reference to a native of Florida or Georgia, however, it is used in a more neutral context.

Pussy, when used in this context carries the derogatory implication of being weak or cowardly and can also be used to refer to a male who is not considered sufficiently masculine.

Plies is a hip hop artist that rose to prominence in his thirties (DOB July 1st 1976) and is best known for the songs Shawty and Hypnotized, has had his own trouble with the law before. In 2006 he was arrested for illegal possession of a concealed weapon after a fight at a Gainesville, Florida nightclub ended with shots being fired. The shooting, in which 5 people were injured, started after Plies’ microphone was cut off for Lil’ Boosie to perform, after Plies’ performance ran over time. According to the promoter Jonathan Smith, Plies became “enraged”. Two other people who were with him during the shooting confrontation were charged with attempted murder.

Yesterday, Plies released a tribute song to Martin titled “We Are Trayvon Martin” and will be available on sale through iTunes. The rapper has stated that all profits from the tribute song are set to go to the Martin family. However, some in the hip-hop community doubt the sincerity of donating the proceeds to the family and feel this is another attempt to boost his fading career.

This t-shirt is the most recent in a plethora of t-shirts and hoodies that have been seen amid the increasing public demand to arrest George Zimmerman for the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Compared to the Plies t-shirt, most of the t-shirts and hoodies have been comparatively docile but all illustrate an overwhelming message of support for the Martin family and call for the Zimmerman’s immediate arrest.

Although Though Trayvon’s parents have encouraged people to get involved in keeping the pressure on, his mother Sabrina Fulton, has taken steps to increase some control over her sons name, image and likeness. Fulton filed two petitions last week to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to specifically gain the rights to the phrases ‘I Am Trayvon’ and ‘Justice For Trayvon’, both of which have been frequently used by supporters across the country. The patent application shows that she is specifically looking for control of the use of those phrases on CDs and DVDs, so it should have little to no effect on the creation of t-shirts or hoodies for the cause.

Some people say the media has gone too far with this tragedy and people need to get over it.

Where is the tribute for the black kids killed every day by gang members while on the way to school or on their way back home? What about that white boy set on fire by two Black boys?

On the flip side, were the killers of those people allowed to walk away from the murder claiming it was self defense? Were those people allowed to go home after they followed, chased down, killed someone and admitted it?

Sen. Kevin Parker (left), D-Brooklyn; Sen. Bill Perkins (center), D-New York; and Sen. Eric Adams, D-Brooklyn, wear hoodies during a session Monday, March 26th in the Senate Chamber in Albany. The senators wore the sweatshirts to protest the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer.

Martin was wearing a hoodie when he was shot and killed by a self appointed neighborhood watch leader, George Zimmerman, who has not yet been arrested or held responsible for Martin’s death. Zimmerman is believed to be in hiding since shortly after the Feb. 26 shooting. Trayvon was shot and killed on February 26 2012, as he walked back to his father’s girlfriend’s home from a 7-Eleven where he had just bought some Skittles and iced tea. Zimmerman called police to report a suspicious person, when he saw Travyon walking from the store. The police told Zimmerman not to confront him, but he did anyway and admitted to police that he shot Trayvon in the chest after a scuffle.

It’s been nearly one month since Trayvon, who was completely unarmed, was shot and killed and the Sanford Police have refused to arrest George Zimmerman. The 28-year-old neighborhood watch officer claimed that he had been jumped by Trayvon and felt threatened when he shot him — which police say could be justified under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. Demonstrations protesting Martin’s senseless killing have been held across the country. Last week President Obama weighed in on the controversy “I think all of us have to do some soul-searching to figure out how does something like this happen,” the commander-in-chief said. “And that means we examine the laws, the context for what happened, as well as the specifics of the incident.” “If I had a son he’d look like Trayvon,” he said. “And I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we’re going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.”  A hoodie is a sweatshirt with a hood. They often include a kangaroo pocket or muff sewn onto the lower front, a hood, and (sometimes) a drawstring to adjust the hood opening, and may have a zipper down the center like a windbreaker style jacket. The hoodie can be traced back to Medieval Europe when the formal wear for monks included a long, decorative hood called cowl worn a tunic or robes. The hooded sweatshirt was first produced in the United States starting in the 1930s. The modern clothing style was first produced by Champion in the 1930s and marketed to laborers working who endured freezing temperatures while working in upstate New York. The term hoodie entered popular usage in the 1990s. The hoodie took off in the 1970s, with several factors contributing to its success. Hip hop culture developed in New York City around this time, and the hoodie’s element of instant anonymity, provided by the accessible hood, appealed to those with criminal intent. Haute couture also influenced the hoodie during this era, as Norma Kamali and other high-profile designers jumped on the hoodie bandwagon.

At Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, the senior pastor, the choir and the congregation traded in their Sunday best to honor ‘Hoodie Sunday.’ “We are wearing hoodies because the other day we were moving through the routine traffic of our lives when we found ourselves staring in the face of something we thought we had already passed,” said Ebenezer Baptist Church Senior Pastor Raphael Warnock. Pastor Warnock wore his Morehouse college hoodie and dedicated his sermon to 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was wearing a hoodie when he was gunned down by George Zimmerman a self appointed neighborhood watch captain in a gated Florida community. “Trayvon Martin was profiled, hunted down and killed for crossing some cultural arbitrary line,” said Warnock. Ebenezer Baptist Church is the spiritual home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and has a long history of standing for justice as America’s freedom church. “The situation that happened with Trayvon was extremely unfortunate, but not unusual and this service is in support of his family and expressing our concerns about the things that currently prevail in America in terms of our African American young men,” said Ebenezer Baptist Church member Bob Pickens. Church member Angela Kelley said “We’re all regular people in hoodies. We are all one people that’s one of a kind and we just support him and his family.” “Trayvon got up inside of all of us, from Florida to New York, from Massachusetts to Mississippi, he got up and began to speak and say to America, ‘You can do better, rise up,’” said Warnock. Warnock made it known that no one wearing a hoodie should automatically be considered a thug and that history suggests that Black people should be the one’s fearful of people in hoods. “The funny thing is, we’ve been dealing with people in our communities wearing hoods and we didn’t shoot anybody and we didn’t kill anybody. We believed in America even when American didn’t believe in us. We kept the faith,” said Warnock.

A hoodie (also called a hooded sweatshirt or hoody) is a sweatshirt with a hood. They often include a kangaroo pocket or muff sewn onto the lower front, a hood, and (sometimes) a drawstring to adjust the hood opening, and may have a zipper down the center like a windbreaker style jacket. The hoodie can be traced back to Medieval Europe when the formal wear for monks included a long, decorative hood called cowl worn a tunic or robes. The hooded sweatshirts was first produced in the United States starting in the 1930s. The modern clothing style was first produced by Champion in the 1930s and marketed to laborers working who endured freezing temperatures while working in upstate New York. The term hoodie entered popular usage in the 1990s. The hoodie took off in the 1970s, with several factors contributing to its success. Hip hop culture developed in New York City around this time, and the hoodie’s element of instant anonymity, provided by the accessible hood, appealed to those with criminal intent. Haute couture also influenced the hoodie during this era, as Norma Kamali and other high-profile designers jumped on the hoodie bandwagon. Like custom t-shirts, the ability to design, create or make your own custom hoodies online is offered by many decorated apparel and promotional products companies.

The Fox News host said Friday on Fox and Friends “I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters particularly not to let their children go out wearing hoodies. I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as much as George Zimmerman was” Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla., Martin, 17, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a self appointed neighborhood watch volunteer. The unarmed teen’s death and the failure to arrest Zimmerman have ignited protests and inspired a “Million Hoodie March” Wednesday in New York, with thousands of protesters, a lot of of them wearing hoodies.

“Trayvon Martin, God bless him, an innocent kid, a wonderful kid, a box of Skittles in his hands. He didn’t deserve to die. But I bet you money, if he didn’t have that hoodie on, that nutty neighborhood watch guy wouldn’t have responded in that violent and aggressive way,” Rivera said. Rivera went on to explain that he tells his son not to wear hoodies. “When you see a kid walking down the street, particularly dark-skinned kid like my son Cruz (24) — who I constantly yelled at when he was going out wearing a damn hoodie or those pants around his ankles, ‘Take that hood off!’” Geraldo added, “People look at you, and what’s the instant identification? What’s the instant association? It’s those crime-scene surveillance tapes. Every time you see someone stickin’ up a 7-Eleven, the kid’s wearing a hoodie,” Rivera continued. “Every time you see a mugging on a surveillance camera or they get the old lady in the alcove, it’s a kid wearing a hoodie. You have to recognize that this whole stylizing yourself as a ‘gangsta’ … You’re gonna be a gangsta wannabe? Well, people are going to perceive you as a menace. That’s what happens. It is an instant reflexive action.” Rivera answered many who jumped on him on Twitter, saying, “It’s sad that I have to be the one reminding minority parents of the risk that comes with being a kid of color in America–channel the rage.” Geraldo also stated that there were some people who sided with him: “In the avalanche of criticism how interesting that most minority moms back me because they want their sons to live long and prosper”

The hoodie can be traced back to Medieval Europe when the formal wear for monks included a long, decorative hood called cowl worn a tunic or robes. The hooded sweatshirt was first produced in the United States starting in the 1930s. The modern clothing style was first produced by Champion in the 1930s and marketed to laborers working who endured freezing temperatures while working in upstate New York. The term hoodie entered popular usage in the 1990s. The hoodie took off in the 1970s, with several factors contributing to its success. Hip hop culture developed in New York City around this time, and the hoodie’s element of instant anonymity, provided by the accessible hood, appealed to those with criminal intent. Haute couture also influenced the hoodie during this era, as Norma Kamali and other high-profile designers jumped on the hoodie bandwagon. Like custom t-shirts, the ability to design, create or make your own custom hoodies online is offered by many decorated apparel and promotional products companies.