This last week, I’ve been involved with the distribution end of publication.

Grow With the Flow is to be marketed very largely through our web site, which is not yet up and running. Orders placed on the web site will go directly to The Erie Book Store, owned and operated by my sister, Kathleen Cantrell. During the week, Kath and I have spent hours on the phone figuring out just how to make delivery smooth and error free. Looking over the draft of what we’ve come up with so far, my Peak Potential partner, Marilyn Jones, wrote to say “Well! It is incredible how complicated what seems like a simple thing becomes…” As my friend and hiking partner, Rick Price, (tour guide par excellence, so he should know) is fond of saying, “The Devil is in the details.” Now to find a good source for a mailer – attractive, tough, waterproof, quick to seal, fair price, able to hold one book snugly but still have room for multiple orders…

Matt Miller is a guest columnist with the New York Times while Maureen Dowd is on “book leave.” (I suppose she’s writing one, or on the road selling one, but I’d like to think there were a couple she really wanted to finish reading…)

Mr. Miller seems to be making good use of his borrowed pulpit: I quoted him a couple days ago, and yesterday’s column is being widely e-mailed by NYT readers: In “Honor Thy Teacher,” he argues the case that we should

commit to making the best teachers of poor children millionaires by the time they retire. Done right, this idea would be a win for the kids, the teachers, the unions and the pols.

I forwarded the link to two young friends: one works for the Denver-area schools and is a strong union supporter, the other spent a year seeing the New Orleans schools from the perspective of a Teach For America classroom. I wonder what they’ll think of it?