Born Veggie

Is killing animals ethical?

2007-02-02T15:28:00.000Z

I’ve had my doubts in the past about some of the things Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have got up to, but this story has really surprised me. Basically, Peta have been taking animals from crowded shelters somewhere in the US and killing them by lethal injection. I guess the rationale is that this is ethical treatment, but is it? Not to me – I mean, those shelters would have to be seriously crowded to be worse than death. I have heard people being rude about Peta on various veggie discussion boards in the past, is this why? Any comments on this? Anyone know more than me?

Peta gets OK over hard-hitting campaign

2007-02-02T13:37:00.000Z

Well, I might have thought it was too strong, but the Advertising Standards Authority has dismissed complaints against the Peta campaign with the slogan “Feeding kids meat is child abuse”. I must say, I’m surprised, but pleased, I guess. It’s basically an official body accepting the premise that eating meat is bad.

The missing link

2007-01-29T17:34:00.000Z

Bit old this story, but totally stupid, nonetheless. A lady who has been veggie for twenty years is going to eat a McDonald’s Big Mac as part of an effort to raise money for a cancer charity. Now, if she was doing it to illustrate the link between fast foods and cancer, and it was a moment of sacrifice for the cause, then I could understand it. But no, that link dosen’t seem to have been noticed over in Berkhamstead. No, this is a genuine my-nan-died-from-cancer-so-I’ll-give-up-being-a-vegetarian-and-eat-a-McDonald’s piece of logic. And you know what the best bit is? No, I’ll let the ex-Berkhamstead vegetarian in question tell you: "It's the thought of eating something that was a living animal that's going to make it interesting," she says. The mind boggles.

Newspaper tries to praise vegetarianism

2007-01-03T16:55:00.000Z

The Guardian newspaper the other day had an article in its leader column headlined In praise of vegetarianism. While it was nice to see a piece setting out to extol the virtues of a practice dear to my heart, I don't think it was done very well.

While I'm quoting slightly selectively, I know, the juxtapositions of the lines "[we] have come a long way since the days of textured vegetable protein. Humane meat is now more popular than ever" is hardly convincing in its "praise". Great, we have humane meat (I guess that's non-factory farmed meat) - it's hardly the bastion of a great argument for vegetarianism, is it now?

The best the piece can do is say "vegetarians still look elsewhere". It doesn't say where. Maybe the writer doesn't know [what he's talking about]. The piece then goes on about the environmental benefits of vegetarianism, which, while worthy, I suspect are not the main reason most vegetarians eschew meat.

The piece goes on to say: "vegetarianism confronts ethical questions that a lot of us prefer to ignore", but the writer fails even to suggest what these are and moves quickly on, completely missing the whole point of vegetarianism in the process. Basically, the piece would have been better called "A little bit of pointless and obvious information about vegetarianism".

By the way, don't bother reading the immense deluge of comments attached to the piece unless you want to hear the "meat-eaters are cruel vs. we have sharp teeth and are meant to eat meat" arguments going round and round in endless cycles of nothingness. Yes, we know you have sharp teeth, you animals.

Don't eat horses is good, no?

2006-12-15T15:21:00.000Z

Will Peta stop at nothing to get the message out there? The animal rights group have a very creative campaigns team, that's for sure. Their latest trick is for two female members to parade around the freezing streets of Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan, wearing just bikinis made from lettuce leaves, and urging people to go veggie. The Kazakhs, god bless them, were bewildered by the whole affair - vegetarianism not being very common in the central Asian nation. On top of the publicity surrounding the Borat film, they probably thought it was some more foreigners poking fun at them. Still, if it did work, then good for the Peta girls. Look out for a surge in vegetarian restaurants in Almaty in 2007.

Smart move, this veggie lark

2006-12-15T10:50:00.000Z

This is great. According to researchers from Southampton University, intelligent people are more likely to become vegetarian. Strictly speaking, this places me in the less intelligent category, as I didn't 'become' vegetarian, but I think I should get intelligence points for not becoming a non-vegetarian. Either way, the findings agree with my constant argument (which began here - see "I say, old chap, eating meat is so vulgar" in April's archive) that vegetarianism is part of a more civilised, rational approach to life. Unsurprisingly, the Vegetarian Society agrees, saying: "We've always known that vegetarianism is an intelligent, compassionate choice benefiting animals, people and the environment." You don't say.

Nuts to protein scaremongers

2006-12-14T16:37:00.000Z

We vegetarians have made and heard countless arguments as to why a meat-free diet is healthier, and here is another one to throw on the pile. It's all very official and quite good at reposting those who fall lazily back on the not-enough-protein line. We need protein to grow big and strong and aggressive, of course, but how much? Meat eaters are always fondly recalling the days when we used to roam the earth with spears looking for animals to kill. But how many did we actually kill? I don't know, but I doubt there was roast on the cave menu every night. So we had sharp teeth, granted, and we ate meat, granted, but not all the time. Anyway, time we moved on from the Stone Age, don't you think?

Funny, that

2006-11-24T22:02:00.000Z

This comment piece on the Guardian website is quite anti-vegetarian, but the response thread underneath makes for fascinating, if somewhat infuriating, reading. I was appalled that some people seem to honestly believe that animals have no consciousness. They countered arguments about the distress animals show in slaughterhouses by saying that animals are like machines, such as cars, that show signs of stress under too much pressure. Is it just me, or is that a ridiculous argument? Oh, and when asked about dogs, someone said that they just mimicked consciousness! These people are really out there.

The other point that really irked me was that any time a vegetarian defended their stance on the blog, they were labelled as humourless. I mean, what’s that about? Are we telling jokes or having a serious discussion. I mean, on the football blogs people are allowed serious debates with being described as humourless. Is eating animals less serious than football?

Bloodless revolution

2006-11-18T16:42:00.000Z

Well, it may not be quite a revolution, but someone has made a vegetarian black pudding. Although it's a rather unpalatable idea (seemingly for vegetarians and meat-lovers alike), black pudding being one of the most unvegetarian dishes imagineable, by all accounts the result sounds quite nice - it's made with beetroot and caramel, yum.

McNasty surprise

2006-11-09T18:20:00.000Z

This is a bizarre story about a Muslim vegetarian who ordered a ‘veggie melt’ in McDonald’s and only realised halfway through eating it that it was actually pork. Now, that is bad (I once had a similar incident in a greasy spoon in Clapham in south London), and she has my sympathy, but what was she doing eating in McDonald’s in the first place? I mean, what’s the point of being vegetarian if you’re going to frequent such an unethical, meat-fuelled, smarmy establishment? Hasn’t she seen Supersize Me and McLibel? Even if she hasn’t, just the smell of the place should put any self-respecting vegetarian off – it reeks of meat (and plastic).

The bizarre bit of the story, though, was the girl’s utter surprise. Her uncle, Nick Tillekeratne, from Slough, who was with the girl at the time, said: "It was only when Jasmin began eating the veggie melt that she realised there was bacon in it.

"Believing that McDonald's has a worldwide reputation for quality, and great respect for the dietary habits of their customers, she did not bother to check.”

McDonald’s has a worldwide reputation for making the worst food in history – most of it in the guise of some form of meat. They don’t say “Boycott McDonald’s” for nothing, you know.

Unhappy hunting

2006-10-24T11:37:00.000Z

I’ve just read this fascinating article by Tristram Stuart, author of the book The Bloodless Revolution: Radical Vegetarians and the Discovery of India, in which he argues that vegetarianism could help global warming, but says that even staunch vegans contribute to animal cruelty, and goes on to expound the virtues of hunting. In this final point, his reasoning is sound and logical, but requires an ability to rationalise the killing of animals in the same way that politicians rationalise the killing of innocent children in warfare: that it’s for the greater good. While it may be true, for many of us, me included, these cold calculations are impossible to make. Maybe I’m just too sensitive, but I couldn’t shoot a deer so that the forest can regenerate properly. But do I condemn his actions, or accept that, while it’s a dirty job, someone has to do it?

Not mincing their words

2006-10-09T12:52:00.000Z

Peta UK has launched an advertising campaign in northern England with the tagline "Feeding Kids Meat Is Child Abuse". Well, I’m all for kids being veggie, both my own are, but to call someone who gives their kid meat a child abuser is going a bit far, I reckon. You might as well say you’re a child abuser if you live in a city, because you’re exposing your kids to pollution. Still, maybe the starkness of the message will make some people stop and think, and maybe that’s what they’re getting at.

Lighting the debate

2006-09-28T08:59:00.000Z

Artist Julia Lohmann has used spare animal parts to make furniture in an attempt, she says, to bring people face-to-face with the way animals are used to produce everyday products.

She says: "The point was just to show that so much of our classification of animals depends on context: a rabbit is a family pet, vermin or a delicacy. Similarly, people think it's terrible if animals are used in art - by the likes of Damien Hirst, for example. But they accept it if animals are killed to produce consumer goods."

The contradictions in the way we treat animals are rife and pointing it out in such a stark way is, I think, a worthwhile aim. The only problem is that most people already know it. But humans have an incredible capacity to be appalled, and then, a few seconds later, to forget it and carry on as before.

That’s why I tip my hat to all those former meat-eaters out there who managed to stay focused enough on the cruelty caused to animals to change their diets and become vegetarians. Vegans deserve even a bigger doffing of the hat for going the whole hog. I was raised veggie and so I didn’t have to make that choice – and I sometimes wonder if I would have? Who knows.

Anyway, artist Lohmann is doing some good work for vegetarianism with this show, despite the fact it uses dead animal parts and she herself is not a vegetarian. She says she considers it important, in a society in which packaging and even language is used to disguise the origins of animal-based products, that consumers take some responsibility for their role in an animal's death.

"For some, that would make it hard to wear the leather, or eat the meat," she says. "It's hard in a market designed to make us less and less aware of the connection; chicken doesn't look like chicken any more but comes in dinosaur-shaped lumps.

"Whether or not to go vegetarian is a personal choice - but it's a choice everyone should make actively. Our relationship with animals is not a simple yes or no debate. Acknowledging the origins of a product is a first step towards making more ethical choices about what we consume."

Turning the other cheek

2006-09-20T13:30:00.000Z

Following up yesterday's fur posting from the other day, here's the anti-fur poster of naked actress Sadie Frost. The picture was taken by no less than that gravel-voiced balladeer Bryan Adams. Now I wonder why he volunteered his services?

Fur christ's sakes

2006-09-18T09:27:00.000Z

Unfortunately, it looks like fur is making a comeback in the fickle, some might say "sick", world of high (some maight say "low") fashion. In Britain, and I'm sure elsewhere, there is, at least, some mainstream resistance, but it seems to be fighting a losing battle.

What is wrong with these fur-wearering people? I mean, the designer Julien MacDonald (any relation to the golden arched burger chain, I wonder?) has made a coat with a row of foxes' heads dangling from it. Either, a) these people just don't care, b) the thought that it's wrong just doesn't enter their dim heads, c) they rationalise it somehow, saying that foxes are pests and need to be killed, or it was dead anyway - was it? or some other twisted reasoning that they convince themselves with, or, worst of all d) they actually like the fact that animals have been so pointlessly killed (it gives them a sense of power). Can anyone explain it? Does anyone know anyone who wears fur? What do they say?

Anyway, if you're outraged by it all, furisdead.com is a good anti-fur site with lots of links and ways to get involved. Although, I guess if we wear leather shoes and are appalled at fur wearers, we're being hypocritical - so check your feet first.

Gong to the dogs

2006-09-04T22:03:00.000Z

I think I’ve written about vegetarian dogs, before – I can’t remember. Anyway, I think it’s a bit of a silly idea. Actually, I think there's something unnatural about the way most people treat their dogs. In fact, I think dogs are probably the most unnatural animals on the planet. This is no fault of theirs; their evolution has been manipulated by human behaviour towards them and they’ve lapped it up, to the point that they are now perhaps the only animals incapable of looking after themselves. Of course, this excludes the tiny percentage of dogs that are wild dogs. In fact, wild dogs serve as an illustration of how far domestic dogs have deviated from their natural state – you wouldn’t catch a wild dog whimpering and looking forlornly at a human in the hope of being thrown a scrap of food.

Left to their own devices, domestic dogs become starved and diseased scavengers. It’s a sad state of affairs. They also bark mindlessly at things and poo in parks and on footpaths. Yep, I’m no fan of owning dogs. And now, in yet another example of man’s ability to humiliate and further downtread the canine species, a man in India has taught his pet to perform yoga. And he thinks the fact that he’s a vegetarian and the dog is a vegetarian shows how enlightened he is.

The deluded owner says: "He was weak when he was born. We took special care of him and he gradually became strong after his yoga lessons. He has won many prizes at dog shows and he recently won the medal for best health."

Jesus, don’t get me started on dog shows ...

Meanwhile, talking of deluded people, this anti-vegetarian article is preposterously bad. I particularly liked the author’s four reasons why the world shouldn’t be vegetarian. He writes: “Radical animal rightists and bioethicists would like meat to be phased out of human nutrition altogether and turn the population into vegetarians. Such a policy would be disastrous at least in four respects:

- It would make the fuel crisis and deforestation much worse, as cooking vegetable matter, particularly fibrous plants, requires much more energy than does the preparation of meat;

- It would divert time away from production, for cooking and eating vegetables is more time consuming than the preparation of meat dishes

- It would lead to the disappearance of entire domestic breeds and eventually species;

- It would create a nutritional crisis in many parts of the world, leading to starvation, stunting and interference with brain development.”

Suddenly the yoga-loving dog owner seems sane. Take me to the nearest vegetarian dog show – there must be one somewhere?

Bit of bovver for veggie Bovril fans

2006-09-01T12:12:00.000Z

I’ve never actually tasted it, but it seems a hot cup of Bovril brings a warm glow of nostalgia to many Brits. Vegetarians have recently been able to drink the substance, which was originally called, delightfully, Liquid Beef (yum!), because in 2004 it ditched the meat content in favour of a yeast mixture due to a ban on exporting British beef. Apart from the fact it was then pretty much the same product as marmite, ex-meat-eating, Bovril-loving vegetarians everywhere rejoiced and supped it dreamily again on football terraces across the land. Until today that is. Yes, Bovril is once again liquid beef. Which is a shame, for some. Especially the cows.

Radical Vegetarians and the Discovery of India

2006-08-21T12:03:00.000Z

This book looks like a good read. Apparently the author, Tristram Stuart, is also, or used to be, a freegan. While I can see the sense ethically and ecologically - freegans eat food thrown out by supermarkets - I'm not sure I have the will to try it. Maybe I'm just too old, I'm sure I would have as a radical student, back in the day.

Anyway, here's an extract from the book.

Slaughter brings Ramsey close to tears

2006-08-09T13:07:00.000Z

Channel 4 will tonight show two pigs being slaughtered on the programme the F-Word. It even features the show's star, hardman chef Gordon Ramsey and owner of the two pigs, close to tears. PETA, and others, I'm sure, hope the programme will turn scores of people vegetarian overnight, so veggie restaurants around the country should stock up in anticipation!

Apparently, Channel 4, on the other hand, are bracing themselves for a flood of complaints over the screening. A spokesperson for the channel said: "A lot of people are in denial about how products arrive on the shelf, and the conditions of farm animals, and one of the points of the series is to show how that happens."

If any meat eaters reading this feel like testing themselves by watching the show, let us know how it goes. I, for one, will be watching football on ITV.

Confessions of a vegetarian vivisectionist

2006-08-08T13:29:00.000Z

What to say about this? A vegetarian vivisectionist! I've discussed at length on many previous posts the ethics of vegetarianism and veganism in relation to animal rights, and in some regards her reasoning makes logical sense, that killing animals for medical research is slightly more ethical than killing them for food. I personally find this cold calculation hard to swallow, (no pun intended), but I can, however, understand the logic that, after dissecting and experimenting on animals all day, she suddenly lost all desire to eat them. In fact, it makes me wonder how any vivisectionist can not be a vegetarian.

Soya fights back

2006-08-08T10:06:00.000Z

Well, wouldn't you just know it, it turns out that the man with the dead parrots mentioned in the Is soya safe? article is a director of the Weston A Price Foundation, a body that promotes traditional farming and the consumption of butter and cow's milk, at least according to Dr Justine Butler he is, who is herself a campaigner for the Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation. The plot thickens.

The problem with research of any kind is that it is almost always conducted, or at least funded, by people with vested interests. Which leaves you not able to believe anything. It's almost enough to start you ranting against capitalism, the system that puts making money at the heart of society, but that should probably be taken up on another blog somewhere else.

In the meantime, I'm tempted to let soya milk back into my life, but in a lesser capacity, just in case. It turns out that rice milk is actually quite nice over cereal; at least I think it is. However, it's not so hot in cooking. We tried making white sauce with it the other day and it turned into an unappetising, brown, watery substance that really did our cauliflowers no favours.

The end of soya as we know it

2006-08-02T11:07:00.000Z

Firstly, apologies to the few of you who check my site regularly for not writing for a while, but we've been on holiday, camping in Devon on the south-west coast of England. We found some lovely hidden sandy coves. I returned to work yesterday to find this minorly earth-shattering article about the dangers of eating too much soya. Now, as any vegetarian or vegan knows, we eat a lot of the stuff. I have it pretty much everyday; soya milk, tofu, soya-protein, soya sauce, miso - the lot. So what do we do?

I had actually heard about all this before, but somehow managed to ignore it or think it was just some extremist trying to annoy me. But for some reason this article has laid it on the line, and I've been forced to take note. I even went out and bought my first carton of rice milk last night. I haven't tried it yet, but I will let you know.

What is even more scary, is the effect it can have on small children. My eldest daughter is two and a half and has been drinking soya milk for almost two years now. She was breastfed until two, so it was never her main source of milk, but she did drink it, and she loves veggie sausages and tofu (although tofu, it seems, is probably fine to eat because of the way it is made, according to the gospel that is this article). But, either way, a seismic shift in our eating habits has been set in motion.

I recommend you read the article (here's the link again) and if you feel like it, let me know what you think. Am I overreacting? And do you know of any good alternatives to pour over my breakfast cereals in case the rice milk turns out to be disgusting?

Glamour girls love it veggie

2006-07-10T15:38:00.000Z

First Pamela Anderson and now Paris Hilton, vegetarians can count some of the world's most lusted-after glamour girls among their ranks. Paris has apparently been persuaded to change her diet by none other than veggie flag-waver Heather Mills who showed her a video about the fur trade.

"I was grossed out. It was disgusting," shrieked the terminally pouting, golden-limbed rich girl.

It doesn't sound like she has yet acquired a love for vegetarian food, however. "I just survive on pasta and stuff like that," she says. Hmmm, for a girl famous for indulgence and luxuries, this doesn't sound like a recipe for long-term success. Someone needs to send her, or more correctly her cook, the Leith's Vegetarian Bible, quick [If you haven't got it, it's full of the most sumptuous food imaginable].

Still, I suppose many people will be surprised she eats anything at all.

One small step ...

2006-07-07T11:11:00.000Z

My recent posts both here and on VeggieBoards asking what vegans think of vegetarians produced quite a response. Many of the comments were, shall we say, a bit bristly, with vegans failing to understand why a vegetarian, a so-called animal lover, could continue to contribute to animal cruelty by eating animal products.

I've come to the conclusion that vegetarians either don't have the same conviction as vegans towards protecting animals or they just don't know as much about where the non-vegan foods they eat come from. I find myself falling somewhere in the middle of these two.

Many vegetarians [and I know it's a generalisation, that's why I'm saying "many"] don't know about the dairy industry anymore than the average omnivore does. I wrote in an earlier post that the reason I don't drink milk is because it doesn't feel right, because cow's milk, to me, is designed for baby cows, not people. I didn't know about the calves being taken away at three days.

Meat, on the other hand, requires little investigation. It is, as I said before, obviously a dead animal.

So many vegetarians, you could say, are simply uninformed animal lovers [this is, of course, discounting all those vegetarians, and there are many, who became vegetarian purely for health reasons - they may think, like many omnivores, that there is nothing wrong with eating animals].

If vegetarians are informed, but continue to eat non-vegan products, it is through a lack of conviction for the cause, and in many ways I can see why vegans get upset about this. But having a strong conviction to protecting all animals is not a prerequisite for being a vegetarian. I don't want poor children in the developed world to suffer because of the coffee I'm drinking, [not that I drink coffee, but it's just an example], but do I always check it is fair trade? And do I check what that means in practise? If you smoke, where does that come from? Who suffers? If you wear trainers, travel in cars, buy fruit and vegetables from another country, even drink water, all of these things can result in suffering of some sort. But how strong is your conviction? As Jesus once said, let him who is free of sin cast the first stone.

If veganism is a step along the road to righteousness, but not the end of the road by any means, vegetarianism is just one step behind.

That said, I now find myself, as a result of this discussion, knowing more than I did about other animal products and I'm faced with the dilemma of what to do about it. Not eating meat, for me, being born veggie, is very easy. Cutting out cheese and yogurt, the two things that stop me being vegan, is less so. But every time I cut a slice of cheese, in the last few days, I feel for the poor calves. The cheese is tasting less and less flavoursome. But I still need to find out more. What about organic cheese? Do they still take the calves away? And I need to get my head around making a significant lifestyle choice borne of a now-I-know-I-can't-ignore-it sense of guilt. See what you've done?

Rumble in veggie land

2006-06-29T23:02:00.000Z

I may be quite new to all this, but I’m beginning to notice that in the blogosphere there is a distinct divide between vegetarians and vegans. Now, I’ve always considered them, us, as nearly them same, kindred spirits, birds of a feather. But it seems I may be wrong.

Most of the best blogs I’ve come across have been vegan blogs, I have to admit. And I reckon this is because vegans are more marginalised and more extreme in their views, and hence more conscious of and vocal about their beliefs?

Despite the fact that many vegetarians stopped eating meat because of cruelty to animals (though not me, I was born veggie, remember), in most cases, in my experience, it was largely an emotional response. They just couldn’t face eating the lovely lambs that gambolled so gaily in the fields, that kind of thing. Many vegetarians also say they never really liked the taste of meat.

But vegans, well, they usually begin their explanation with: “The more I found out about …” This is only my experience, but it seems veganism is more of an intellectual response. I mean, eating honey isn’t so obviously “wrong”, emotionally, in the same way as meat is, which is obviously a dead animal that was once living. It is only when you learn how it is produced, and think about it, that you begin to go off it.

I only say all this because I’m trying to understand the distinct sense of antipathy vegans in the blogosphere [is that a word?] have towards vegetarians. And I think it may be because they see us as half-arsed animal lovers, maybe even a bit soft because even though we can't face eating meat, we’re not strong enough to follow the argument through to its conclusion and realise that it’s just as bad to eat other animal products.

But, you see, as a vegetarian, I’m not following an argument. I just don’t like meat and don’t want to eat meat. I have an emotional palate. Is that bad? Are we the New Labour to the vegan’s Socialism, wanting a fairer system, but not willing to completely rewrite the rulebook? Maybe. But I think vegans should realise that the emotional response is important, and while they may be the real embodiment of civilisation I claimed for vegetarians in an earlier post, our hearts are all in the same place. So let’s be friends, hey?

Vegetables are good for you shock

2006-06-19T15:41:00.000Z

The story that US scientists have "discovered" that vegetables are good for you, after experiments on mice genetically modified to be susceptible to heart attacks, leaves me shaking my head in weary disbelief.

We know vegetables are good for you. They worked that out bleeding years ago. And they probably used mice to prove it. So don't go doing it again! Leave the mice alone. You only have to sit down and eat some vegetables to know they're good for you. You can feel it. The science world's obsession with trying to prove everything (except the efficiency of childhood vaccinations, incidentally, which they can't test because it would be unethical to run human trials, the final and only conclusive step of any medical experiment) is beyond belief, at times. You know, they only banned stag hunting in the UK after scientists "proved" that it caused the stag distress. Like, you thought they enjoyed being chased by wild dogs and being mauled to death? It almost makes you think they should do a study to determine the link between scientists and stupidity.

Still, at least they didn't find out that vegetables are bad for you.

Attack the vegan activist

2006-06-13T11:54:00.000Z

It has been a while since I commented on Heather Mills McCartney and how her campaigning, which included a lot of promoting vegetarianism and veganism, was getting on many people's nerves, for some reason. Well, since then the tabloids have bitten her ankles like a rabid dog and refused to let go, to the extent that she's now being accused of being a former prostitute who took part in mass lesbian romps, or something like that.

Of course, it's not just down to her vegetarian preaching - gold-digging accusations, general personal dislike and a kick-em-while-their-down-cos-it-feels-good-and-sells-papers mentality are all at play - but I'm sure it all began with her telling Canada to stop killing seals and telling people to stop drinking milk. Which is all pretty scary, really, that you can invoke such hate for such blameless, virtuous sentiments. And it's hard to imagine many other issues that would provoke such a reaction.

It all links back to my even earlier point about the primitiveness of eating meat. It seems to me that people are unconsciously indulging their basic primeval instincts when they eat meat, which is not necessarily bad. However, it seems they may react in kind, with biting attacks, if you tell them not to. It's a lesson for any animal rights activists thinking of marrying a multi-billionaire rock star and then using their newfound fame to further the cause. For the rest of us, we'll just get the ever-so-slightly-annoyed raised eyebrows as usual.

No news is good news, right?

2006-06-09T16:57:00.000Z

All quiet in the world of vegetarianism, it seems. No new breakthroughs, reports, polls or surveys to comment on, but I felt I should say something or it might look like I didn't care or something. A bit off subject, but only a bit, did you see that Spain is planning to give legal rights to apes?

It's quite a step, but one that the animal rights activists among you will regard as a mere nod in the right direction. It is a less than straightforward idea, though. I mean, do apes then have to behave according to human laws? And what about other animals? Where do we draw the line on giving rights to the animals that are "most like us"? Could it spell the end of keeping pets, or at least ones you have to tie on a leash? And is it merely philosophical dribbling, without any substance? I mean, according to the reports, zoos will still be able to keep apes in cages. Hmmm.

Elsewhere, I've been eating a stunningly hearty and delicious breakfast recently. Grated apple, oats, mixed seeds, blueberries, strawberries, sweetened soya milk, honey and hazelnuts. Yum.

A vast, joyous, meatless land

2006-05-30T14:36:00.000Z

Some vegetarians won't cook in pots that have been used to cook meat. Some won't even eat off a washed plate that has had meat on it. But to top the lot, in Bombay, India, it is apparently becoming common for vegetarians to refuse to even sell their houses to anyone who eats meat. Real estate broker Norbert Pinto, explains that "some people are very strict." Jeez, and I thought I was a strict veggie.

But India is a land of extremes, so I'm told - I've never been there - and so it seems. The practice is turning whole neighbourhoods into vegetarian havens, with all the shops and restaurants refusing to serve or sell meat. One meat-loving resident complained: "If you step out to eat, there's nothing for miles because everything around is veggie."

Wow, it's like some hazy vision of utopia. I bet the trees are laden with fruit and everyone walks around with huge grins on their faces.

Milking it

2006-05-25T14:08:00.000Z

The milk debate is hotting up. The dairy industry has issued its inevitable defence against the White Lies report, calling it "irresponsible, biased and inaccurate". This one will rumble on, I feel.

I had a hot choclate made with cows milk the other day. I feel quite bad, because I wrote a post the other day about how I never drink milk anymore. But a shop assistant in Fresh and Wild, a health food shop, no less, was handing out free cartons of organic milk and I just couldn't resist taking one. "I'll make a big hot choclate with it," I thought to myself.

However, the said hot choclate, while quite nice, left a bad taste in my mouth, quite literally. Maybe it was just psycological, after all this writing about milk, but it just tasted too much of animal. I don't think I'll finish the free carton, which is a bit of a waste, I know. So, if anyone wants half a pint of cow's milk and lives in east London and wants to come around to my house to get it, it's yours.

Pouting Prince of veggies

2006-05-24T15:26:00.000Z

Prince has confirmed his return to form by scooping the much-coveted World's Sexiest Vegetarian title. The female category was won by someone called Kirsten Bell. Who is she? She's quite fine, though, not surprisingly. My vote, Natalie Portman, was a valiant runner-up. Sky is running a gallery of 52 sexy vegetarians (one for each week of the year, no less) on its website. It's well worth a trawl through if you like looking at pictures of posing celebrities who are both extremely attractive and vegetarian. If not, you might find it a bit annoying.

McDonald's droid does interview

2006-05-23T12:19:00.000Z

Did anyone see the McDonald's UK boss on Channel 4 News last night (go here and click the 'watch the report' link)? It was quite incredible. He sat there like a pre-recorded dummy repeating in a monotone voice the same line to every question - that "There's a lot of curiosity around the brand and that can lead to myths and what I'm trying to do is run the business in an increasingly transparent way and allow people to separate the facts from the fiction." After the third time, the reporter, exasperated by his inability, or his refusal, to say anything else, said: "You just answered three questions in exactly the same way. Can you give me one specific 'myth' you've had to rebuff?" Incredibly, he just said the same line again in response. Talk about a frank and open discussion.

By the way, Heather Mills has pulled out of the milk thing. Probably a wise move, for her and the anti-milk event.

The downfall of a do-gooder

2006-05-22T15:04:00.000Z

Poor Heather Mills ex-McCartney. They really don't like her. The press has been less than sympathetic towards her since the news that she was splitting from husband and aging global megastar Paul McCartney. Does this have anything to do with all her animal rights campaigning, I wonder? Animal rights, and vegetarianism for that matter, are strangely thorny issues, as I discussed in an earlier post. Most people, while willingly cooing over pictures of fluffy bunnies, like eating meat and wearing perfume and don't like people telling them it's wrong. Do-gooders, they're called, and they're held in lower esteem than drug-crazed rock-stars, beer-guzzling comedians, or even philandering former nurses. In fact, it's a sure fire way to get yourself a bad name. Better to snort cocaine and look pretty.

Is all meat bad meat?

2006-05-18T13:14:00.000Z

I met a guy the other day who told me he'd just started eating meat again after 15 years as a vegetarian. His reasons were almost understandable. He said he'd originally given up meat because he was appalled at the way the meat industry treated animals, both for the lack of animal welfare, but principally because he realised it couldn't be good for him to eat it, pumped full as it was with steroids and mad cow disease and the like. But now, what with the organic revolution sweeping the land, he says organic, free-range meat is available at his local corner store. So there's no need to be veggie.

I asked him what it felt like eating meat again after so long and he just grinned and said: "Great."

If this is a new trend, and I suspect it is, to some extent, then are we, the hardcore vegetarians, to embrace it or not. I mean, surely it's better to have a healthy meat industry than an unhealthy one?

I'm torn on this, as usual. My logic says, yes, that's true. But my (ir)rationale says no, just stop it. Leaves those animals alone. Eat vegetables and tofu ...

...

... After much thought, I'll side with my logic as far as the general situation goes, but with my instinct on an individual level. (Jeez, I should be a Liberal Democrat with that kind of sitting-on-the-fence ability.)

As far as veggie quandaries go, this one made me chuckle. The author writes: "Running is not vegan because every time I go running in the late Spring/early Summer I end up swallowing an insect."

It's true. But there you go, I'm not vegan.

Ooh I say!

2006-05-17T13:04:00.000Z

Here's a quote and a half, from none other than the ravishing Pamela Anderson:

"For your best orgasm ever, go vegetarian."

She said it as part of something she was doing for National Orgasm Day, not National Vegetarian Week, which makes it even better.

Also in the name of Orgasm Day, here is a saucy little video.

In fact, am I missing something? All the National Orgasm Day links on the web seem to involve vegetables? Can anyone fill me in?

:-)

Things not to say to a veggie ...

2006-05-16T15:39:00.000Z

With National Vegetarian Week just a few days away, (cue hushed excitement and drum rolls), the vegetarian dating agency (!) website veggieromance.com has revealed the most common and irritating comments ever encountered by vegetarians, according to their "thousands of vegan and vegetarian members".

So here, to get in the spirit of NVW, I shall trying responding to the top ten comments "most likely to get a veggie's goat" ...

1. What do you eat?
I refer you to my article in the May 2006 issue of BBC Good Food magazine, in which I explain fully and exactly what I do and do not eat.

2. How do you get your protein?
By eating it. Sorry, I know what you mean. By eating protein-rich foods. I'm not sure which ones, but I know I eat them.

3. You don't look like a vegetarian.
Yes I do, and you know it.

4. I'm vegetarian too ... apart from chicken ... and fish ... but they don't count.
That's up to you. I eat cheese, so there.

5. You must be tempted by a bacon sandwich?
Are you mad? If I was hungry I might like a sandwich, but without any smelly bacon in it.

6. If it weren't for us (carnivores) there wouldn't be any animals.
You what? Are you saying all animals would stop breeding if nobody wanted to eat them? If there were no carnivores, I suspect there would be more animals, not less. Unless you decided to kill them all anyway.

7. I'm not a vegetarian, but I could never eat a dog or a horse, that's barbaric ...
Interesting. Selective compassion.

8. Don't worry, you'll grow out of it.
I doubt it.

9. Here's some lettuce.
Thanks, what's that for?

10. Why?
Because the thought of eating meat makes me feel sick.

Staying off the white stuff

2006-05-10T15:56:00.000Z

Every vegetarian has been asked, I'm sure, after telling someone that they don't eat meat: "But you drink, milk, right?" The inference is, you may be a bit weird, not eating meat, but don't tell me you're one of those freaks who doesn't even drink milk. As milk is not strictly against my vegetarianism, I usually say, "yes", just to keep the person from having to raise his eyes at me and suddenly find himself on a different place in time where he can no longer even speak to me, I'm so far out there.

But the truth is, I've hardly drunk milk at all since I was about 10. I mean, it's not the dreaded repulsive flesh of meat, and if I'm in a hotel or a friend's house and there's a particularly tempting bowl of cereal on offer and there's only cows milk available, I'll eat it. For sure. But generally, my mum gave it up for me when I was a kid, and now it just doesn't taste right.

We started on soya milk way back then because my brother had a bit of eczema. It cleared up pretty-much as soon as we stopped drinking milk and never came back. So we stuck to the soya stuff. Me and my brothers hated it at first, and I used to jump at any opportunity to pour cow's milk over my cereal, especially the creamy bit. But now it just tastes thick and a bit sickly.

My mum's rationale was quite simple (aside from the miraculous effect on my brother's eczema): cow's milk is designed for cows, she said. And it seems medical opinion is beginning to support her long-held suspicions about the white stuff, with a campign against milk by the Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation gathering pace.

But is campaigning against milk a step too far? Are we pounding regular people too hard telling them that milk is bad for them? I mean, it's not like they can just go and start eating tofu and chick peas to get their calcium - that's just for beardy weirdos. No, they're stuck. Isn't it better they drink milk than not drink it, if we're not to drive them into a corner where all that's left to eat is apples and potatoes and they freak out and go back to burgers and coke?

Heather Mills-McCartney, who is fronting the anti-milk campaign, doesn't seem too bothered about this possibility. And maybe she's right. I mean, if milk really is bad for you, shouldn't people know? I've also heard it said by conspiracy theorists that the milk industry has known for years that its product is not the superfood-that-every-child-needs it's trumped up to be, but has kept it quiet, for obvious reasons. If that's true, shouldn't it be exposed?

However, Mrs Mills-McCartney's insistence on supporting so many antagonistic causes is beginning to result in a noticeable backlash against her. So, to avoid such a fate, I'll stay down off my high horse (I wouldn't want to become unpopular, now, would I?), and conclude thus: milk is not very nice, it comes out of a cow and is designed to make baby cows grow big very quickly, bigger than humans. However, what else are you going to put on your cornflakes? At least we don't have to kill the cows to get it. And you've got to die of something, right? Right?

In case you're interested, sweetened soya milk is nice when you get used to it. Really.

Toothless tale

2006-05-04T14:29:00.000Z

What chance have my teeth got? I'm English and vegetarian. We all know what the world, well Americans at least, think about the English and their bad teeth (I mean, gee, we didn't spend our childhoods with our heads strapped into huge grin-fixing braces, how disgusting), but now some ingenious Scottish scientists have deduced, from roasting ratatouille, that being vegetarian is bad for your teeth!

The conclusion is foolproof because, of course, all vegetarians eat is a diet of pure ratatouille (except for the occasional lasagne when they go out), and only a vegetarian would dream of roasting a ratatouille, as opposed to stewing it.

If you haven't bothered to click on the link and read the story, let me explain. Roasting ratatouille makes the vegetables more acidic than if you stew it. And acid is bad for your teeth. Therefore ... well, it's obvious isn't it?

Flawed as the research obviously is, it was a good enough story to make the pages of the Scotsman and the Daily Mail. Vegetarian scare-mongering is always good for a few column inches, get those half-hearted do-gooders a little jittery. Oh my god, my teeth! Well, I put myself, and my two brothers, also life-long vegetarians, forward as evidence (at least as good evidence as the Scottish scientists) that being veggie isn't bad for your teeth. One filling between us in about 90 years (combined ages). And never a chunck of meat chewed. So there.

My BBC Good Food article

2006-05-01T22:24:00.000Z

As I've already mentioned, the venerable BBC Good Food magazine published an article by me this month (in the May issue), all about how I was brought up as a vegetarian, and whether I should bring my own kids up as vegetarians. They cut down what I wrote quite a bit to fit it all on one page, and called it "Should my kids be veggie" so they could, I suspect, use a picture of my daughter, Lila, but here's the orginial text, as I gave it to them...

I was born in the early 1970s. My parents had long hair, were permanently blissed out, and, as with many other hippies, they didn't eat meat. So when I arrived, they decided to call me Adharanand, (which is Sanskrit for Eternal Bliss), and bring me up as a vegetarian. I guess it must have been the natural thing to do at the time.

But jump forward thirty-odd years to the early twenty-first century, and I'm a pretty unusual specimen in this country a person who has never eaten meat.

But what is it like, for someone like me, to live in a world inhabited by meat eaters?

Well firstly, there are all the questions. Are you ever tempted to try it? What about things like oysters, can you eat those? If you were lost in the desert and the only thing you had to eat was some meat, would you do it? Maybe I can clear some of these up now.

Believe it or not, I have never been tempted. Meat, to me, is, quite simply, repulsive. I should point out that I don't hate all carnivores, or even feel that eating meat is wrong. As someone who has not made a conscious decision to be vegetarian, I don't feel I can take any moral high ground on the issue. But no amount of juicy descriptions of meat, and people have tried, can sow even a flutter of doubt. For me it would be just as difficult to tuck into a slice of lamb, for example, as it would be for a normal person to eat a piece of human meat.

As for what is, and what isn't, meat, this can be tricky. I once ate a lemon ant in the Amazon jungle. Was that meat? Over the years, I've developed my own personal definition of vegetarianism according to my own irrational meat-avoiding impulses. So, oysters are out. Smoky bacon crisps, even if they don't contain any smoky bacon, are out. Eggs are out, except as a minor ingredient. Then they're in, but best avoided. Lemon ants are in, but only very rarely. You see, it's a tricky business for me.

For anyone cooking for a vegetarian, I'd say avoid eggs, unless youre sure your guest eats them. In fact, avoid anything that you feel is borderline vegetarians can be very fussy.

If I ever turn up somewhere for dinner and the person has forgotten I'm vegetarian, I usually try to make as little fuss as possible, accepting that for them I'm the one being awkward. But on no account will I go as far as actually eating any meat. I was once invited to eat with a family in Morocco and language difficulties meant I ended up with a plate of couscous and meat. I guess some vegetarians would, in such a circumstance, hold their nose and eat it. But for me, that would be too much. So I had no choice but to nibble the couscous around the edge and endure the puzzled looks of my hosts.

I did once accidentally eat some meat. I had ordered a veggie burger in a greasy spoon cafe, which is always risky, and they brought me a real, meat burger. I was instantly suspicious of the smell, the texture, but sometimes these veggie burgers are pretty good imitations, so I'm told. After numerous confirmations from the waitress that it wasn't meat, I ate it and ended up sick in bed for four days. So, if I was lost in the desert, I'd probably opt not to eat the meat.

Despite the pitfalls of my life as a vegetarian among meat eaters, Ive grown to realise that there are few places as accommodating as Britain.

I've travelled on all the six major continents, and the worst place I've ever been for vegetarian food has to be Spain. Only in the tapas bars of Andalucia could you find a menu with five hundred different options and none of them vegetarian, (according to my definition, that is, as there is usually a Spanish omelette).

What is worse, they often give you a complimentary dish when you order a drink and are offended if you dont eat it. They are also offended if you pre-empt the gift by asking for one sin carne. In my experience, it's best to find a bar that doesnt give free tapas, and stay there.

The depth of understanding of vegetarianism in Spain was summed up by a lady I met in Seville who told me that her friend had become vegetarian and had turned green, literally. When I politely pointed out that I wasn't green, she said it was because I had been lying in the sun.

So, for all my experiences as a lifelong vegetarian, should I bring my children up as vegetarian? Although this may seem like a tricky question, the idea of my two young daughters eating meat has hardly entered my head. I wouldn't know what to do, for a start. My partner hasnt eaten meat since she was 18, so she wouldnt be much better. But more than that, it just wouldn't feel right. Being vegetarian is part of who I am. It would be almost like deciding to bring your children up in another religion.

A trickier question, in my mind, is how to keep them vegetarian. I mean, if one day they choose to eat meat, that is fine by me, but Id rather they didn't. My parents were successful, if that is the right word, in that neither me nor my two brothers ever wanted to eat meat. Being vegetarian always felt normal to us, which I think was key. I had two school friends who, impressed by my exotic packed lunches, decided to become vegetarian. However, their parents were reluctant to accommodate them and just cooked veggie burgers every day. Needless to say, my friends ended up eating meat again, which is probably what their parents intended.

In our house it was different. My parents, with the opposite motivation, used to threaten to buy us fish and chips if we didn't eat our lentil bake. Nothing made us eat up quicker!

A breath of fresh air? Yes please, I'm starving

2006-04-25T16:04:00.000Z

If anyone out there thinks that vegetarianism is a bit of an extreme diet, then check this out. Breatharians, apparently, exist on a diet of fresh air, and nothing else. Now, I like to think of myself as open-minded, but that's completely bonkers. And according to the accounts on Wikipedia, it's almost certainly impossible (I can't believe I'm using the word "almost").

But it just goes to show that however extreme you think you are, there's always someone willing to take it that little bit further. I feel positively mainstream, as Bob Dylan almost certainly never said.

Sexy veggies

2006-04-24T16:36:00.000Z

Forget FHM, Peta is running a poll to find the World's Sexiest Vegetarian. Strueth!

While it might sound like, jeez, not another silly world's sexiest thing thingy, for us veggies, well some of us, well, me, finding out that a person is vegetarian instantly adds a little something to their attractiveness. Shallow, I know, but there you are.

The list is full of glamourous, and suddenly sexier than ever, film starlets and singers, and it's a tough choice, although Natalie Portman gets my vote. I mean, gawd, she's Queen Amadala and a vegetarian! What more could anyone want. Up against her for the coveted title are Joanna Lumley, Joss Stone, Lauren Bush (Dubya's niece) and Pamela Anderson, among others.

There is also a poll of the world's sexiest vegetarian men. Last year's winner was Chris Martin. If he's going to win again this year and make it a double he'll have to fend off the likes of Andre 3000 (also a previous winner), Boy George, Joaquin Phoenix, Prince, and, of course, Morrissey.

I say, old chap, eating meat is so vulgar

2006-04-19T17:15:00.000Z

Is vegetarianism the epitome of civilised behaviour? By choosing to break the natural order of death and killing, the cycle of violence I talked about in yesterday's post, are we, vegetarians, actually beacons of intellectual enlightenment?

The inventor Thomas Edison said: "Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."

He could be talking about vegetarianism - indeed, I think he was. Unless we are also part of the local hunt or shooting party, or matadors or something, we, vegetarians, are unlikely, or less likely than most, to harm other living things.

I know, I know, it's a thorny subject and I should be wary of claiming moral superiority while I still wear leather shoes, benefit from medical advances and all those other things that involve animal cruelty - not to mention standing on microscopic organisms.

But as a general step in the right direction, vegetarians can claim to be upstanding members of the rational elite. This is at odds with the often-spewed view that vegetarians are long-haired, sandal-wearing beardies with no understanding of the finer things in life.

In polite society, where I occasionally find myself, the idea of vegetarianism is usually, it seems to me, considered peculiar and quaint. Not something one would associate with high art and good manners, those other bastions of civilisation. But is it us, who, rather than apologising for the inconvenience caused and muttering embarrassedly about liking animals, as though it was soft, is it us who should be looking down our noses at the meat eaters, shaking our heads at their savage behaviour?

The cow that fought back

2006-04-18T16:40:00.000Z

It's a sorry tale. A cow, shunted into an abattoir to face having its head chopped off, goes into a mad frenzy and crushes a man to death.

I'm a peace-loving person and I feel sorry for the man and his family. But it's only natural (as meat lovers often tell me - we have sharp teeth after all, and cows have sharp horns). If you're going to kill animals, it's only to be expected that occasionally they're going to fight back. It would be even sadder than it is if they didn't.

I guess the offending cow was put down afterwards, though. Which is also sad. It's a mad, sad circle of violence. Maybe that's what vegetarianism is, a break in the cycle of violence.

Tasty Nestlé veggie sausages, anyone?

2006-04-18T14:20:00.000Z

I never did like Linda McCartney's range of vegetarian food, but news that Nestlé may be about to buy it is still a little disconcerting. There's a definite trend of huge multi-national companies attempting to muscle in on healthy or ethical brands. L'Oréal bought Body Shop and McDonald's bought a large chunk of Pret-A-Manger.

It means the high street lines between good and evil are being blurred, and some people, no doubt, are going to get confused.

"Hmmm," says one innocent shopper. "I'll just pop in and get a freshly made organic avocado sandwich from Pret. How can that hurt anyone?" Or, "I want to help save the world, so I'll stop eating meat. That Linda McCartney was a vegetarian activist, and a nice lady, I'll buy her veggie sausages. That'll show them."

Except that the fat Nestlé executives in their tall, energy-sucking buildings, with their wall-graphs showing the rate at which African women are buying their milk [and if you don't know what's wrong with that, look here], are laughing at you, the hapless shopper, confused by the mirror tricks of multi-branding.

It's just downright dirty. But, I guess, that's why we hate them. If they didn't do things like that, we'd like them and then it wouldn't matter. Is that a Catch-22? I'm not sure. But to be safe, only eat home-grown bean sprouts for the foreseeable future. And only drink water.

Famous vegans

2006-04-12T16:19:00.000Z

I spotted a few quotes I quite liked by famous vegans in an article in The Independent, and I thought I'd share them.

Moby, the singer, who owns Teany, a vegan café in New York, said: "When I think of the fact that literally tens of billions of animals are killed nearly every year for human purposes, part of me wants to go out and join the Animal Liberation Front." Sometimes I feel like that, too.

Meanwhile, how about this from the poet Benjamin Zephaniah. When asked what he would eat if he was in a desert with no food in sight except a cow, he said: "I'd find out what the cow was eating and join it." Good answer. Unless the cow was dead, of course. But still a good answer.

Desperate veggie housewife

2006-04-12T15:39:00.000Z

Here's for a bit of celebrity vegetarian watching. Aparently Desperate Housewives actress Nicolette Sheridan has given up meat in a bid to please her new fiancé Michael Bolton. Now that's an endorsement! Apparently, according to sources close to the star, it is reported that, a friend said: "He's pushing Nicolette to give up meat because watching her eat a lamb chop grosses him out." Yeah, go Michael! And in a real coup de grace, he managed to convince her "it will keep her caloric intake down". Despite all his well-reasoned arguments, however, it seems the desperate one is finding it just too hard to stay away from the evil meat stuff. According to the same well-placed source, "She's trying, but she does sneak a chicken now and then".

What a twittering hoo-hah, is all I can say.

Are you a believer?

2006-04-12T12:31:00.000Z

A vegetarian couple in West Sussex who were told they could not foster children have persuaded the county council to change its guidelines.

This raises the ever murky question of whether you should you raise your children as vegetarians? I have just written an article for BBC Good Food magazine (unfortunately there is no link as it doesn't have a website) about this very subject. But more of that later. The lady in the fostering case said: "Some people have accused us of trying to push our values on to children but one comment I would say about that is the very nature of parenting is that you influence your children."

This makes sense. If you believe in something, you try to pass it on to your children. You obviously hold beliefs because you feel they're right. Right? This is where it gets sticky, and you have to be really honest with yourself. How much do you believe in it? She compares it to bringing your children up in a certain religion. I made the same comparison in my BBC Good Food article. But what happens if you don't really believe in your religion, as I'm sure many people don't?

I may be waffling here, but for me, vegetarianism is something I believe in, very strongly, for me. It is part of who I am. I like being vegetarian. I find meat replusive. But, you know, I don't actually think eating (free-range) meat is wrong. I want to think that, but my logic says it isn't. My logic says it's natural to eat meat, occassionally. Jeez, what a mind-field.

However, despite this doubt, I fully back the foster parents and I have no intention of giving my children meat. You want to know why? I just can't.

Beginnings...

2006-04-12T12:05:00.000Z

I was born veggie. Well, strictly speaking, I was born to vegetarian parents who decided to raise me without eating meat. A controversial decision, perhaps, but there it is. Apart from one accidental abberation, which I'm sure I'll get around to recounting at some point on this blog, I have lived my entire 32 and a bit years without eating meat. Strange? Unfortunate? Cool? Who cares? I get many reactions, mostly of surprise and incomprehension, as if I'd said I'd lived my whole life without drinking water. Now, that would be strange. No? Anyway, this is me and this is my blog. Let's see what happens.