The random thoughts & events in the life of an animal-loving, peace-loving vegetarian.
I can't promise to write regularly. And I can't promise that it will be interesting when I do.
It's hard to follow but watch how the map changes from March 2008 to February 2013. The more vegans the bluer the state. (Gotta love Oregon!) States come and go but by February 2013 the country is definitely bluer. Google data shows that there is a steady increase in the volume of searches nationwide for vegan-related terms. An article in The Guardian asks if meat-eating in the US is falling out of style.
According to a Harris Interactive study commissioned by the Vegetarian Resource Group, approximately five percent of the U.S. is vegetarian (close to 16 million people) and about half of these vegetarians are vegan. While this may sound like a small number, what’s amazing is that the number of vegans in the U.S. has doubled since 2009 from 2.5 percent of the population. This means that 7.5 million people in the U.S. now eat diets that do not include any animal products. The study also revealed that 33 percent of Americans are eating vegan/vegetarian meals more often, though they are not vegan or vegetarian. That is over 100 million people, or one third of the country consciously choosing more plant-based foods! With mounting evidence that abstaining from animal products may be a key ingredient to good health, this number can only be expected to grow.
Like teachers, I have a lot of contact with people and therefore with names. I feel that for the most part parents have the right to name their kids anything they choose. We choose our children's religion, eating habits, entertainment and clothing. All of these things can be rejected once the kid grows up and can choose for themselves. They can't change their name, though, not without going through a lot of red tape. Seems to me this decision ought to be made responsibly, kindly.
We have a patient with the first name VA-Gina. She goes by Gina of course. WTF? What kind of seriously twisted parents does she have?
On a less serious note we also have a patient with the last name Trench-Gak. Now that's just plain funny to me. "Gak" is the perfect onomatopoeia for a cat bringing up a fur ball. And a trench is another word for ditch, so of course every time I hear her name I have this visual image of a cat throwing up a fur ball in a ditch. When Mr. Gak and Miss Trench got married they should have just picked another random last name, don't you think?
Not really a blog worthy topic but I had to get it off my chest, especially that first one.
It's fun to post old pictures and relive the memories, especially since these pictures were pre-wedding and the boys (and we) were getting to know their to-be Uncle Daniel.
Baba gave and taught the boys "No Stress Chess." It's been a great success.
We were treated to a leg-wrestling twin off.
This was the weekend I brought the girls their portion of my mom (and dad's, really) will.
The emotional event was relieved by a bout of thumb wrestling.
Kai needs a lesson about passing the baton in a relay. (And Daniel needs a bigger bike.)
These are old pics (it feels strange to see the old kitchen floor) but I wanted to share one of Tippy and Chappu's favorite activities - the pouring of dry food from the large bag to the more manageable plastic containers. All it takes is for them to hear the crinkle of the bag (and me thumping the bottom of the empty containers to remove the previous bits of food) to coming running into the kitchen at top speed. Their joy comes from me spilling a few pieces in the process. Those stolen bits on the floor must taste more delicious or something.
Here you see Chappu yelling at me to spill more and get less in the containers.
I missed Tippy doing it, but she got around the problem by standing on her hind legs and eating directly out of the containers.
These cuties make what would otherwise be a boring job an enjoyable one.
In my previous post I mentioned winning a dinner for two at Fern, a vegetarian restaurant in Charlotte. I always get silly happy when I know I'm about to enter an establishment in which anything I order will be safe from meat and has vegan options labeled. It's even better when the meal is free (especially to my better half.)
Fern is located in a part of Charlotte that has other veggie friendly, artsy, specialized businesses. The front leaves little space for anything other than parking, but they've managed to squeeze in a little vegetable patch that produces fresh yummies from Mother Nature for our meals.
The wall has an artistic hanging of fabric with cleverly tucked live ferns growing in separate pockets. This is a very cute idea but somewhat neglected looking. We arrived early and the only other customer was this family of four. I wondered if they were vegetarian or just veggie-friendly foodies?
Makes me silly happy.
While we waited for our appetizer I admired the "ferny" silverware.
We started with the bruschetta. I don't know what they did to make it taste so good but it tasted sooo good.
I got the smoked barley risotto and...
...Saeed got the crispy tofu pad Thai. I wished I'd gotten this once I saw it, not that mine was bad... it was just heavier.
I hope I don't have to wait for and win another raffle to come back here. I liked it a lot!!
We went to the Charlotte VegFest this year. I think it was the third annual festival for all things vegetarian, vegan, and animal friendly. There were vendors, speakers, food, and music. The weather was fantastic and we met up with our neighbors Kelly and Mark. They are not vegetarian (though she has expressed a wish to) be but they are definitely veggie friendly.
The highlight for me was meeting Gene Baur, President and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary. I've posted videos of the animals at Farm Sanctuary before so you may recognize him when you see his picture:
He spoke at length about the problems associated with raising, killing and eating animals primarily from the ethical viewpoint of animal suffering yet also touched on the nutritional and environmental impact of this industry. I'm always awed when someone can speak passionately and eloquently for an hour without notes or props. He only had 10 minutes after his talk before having to leave for another engagement in LA, but I scooted to the front of the table to speak to him and have him sign my copy of his book, Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food.
I mentioned that we'd seen his debate on Intelligence Squared and he pumped his fist with joy and exclaimed, "And the vegans won!"
Saeed and I really enjoyed the debate and I would love it if you'd watch it:
Another celebrity in attendance was Leilani Münter, one of the few successful female race car drivers. Her phrase is, "Never underestimate a vegetarian hippie chick with a race car." Discovery named her the "#1 Eco Athlete in the world." Her website is carbonfreegirl.com.
I did a poor job snapping pics. When I'm enjoying something I pretty much forget to take pictures. I got none of the food vendors but found this cute lady who runs a chicken sanctuary in NC.
I won the raffle (thanks to Saeed's suggestion to put all three tickets in the same jar) and we got a free dinner for two at Fern, a vegetarian restaurant in Charlotte. The lottery tickets I bought were 'delivered' inside this cute bag:
I hope to attend next year and will do a better job with my pic snapping. :-)
Don't know if any of you paid much attention to our President's selection of our new Surgeon General who after seven months of squabbling was approved a couple of weeks ago by a 51-43 vote in our Senate. It's really quite amazing that he made it through since he's anti-gun and the NRA was having a fit with his nomination.
Meet Dr. Vivek Murthy, seen here with Senator Cory Booker.
(I love Booker who is vegan but that may be another post.)
So why am I blogging about him? Because he is a breath of fresh air. A growing minority of us believe that the government's status quo position on health care and the role nutrition plays needs to go. We still give subsidies to the meat and dairy industries and not the fruit and vegetable industries, knowing that our citizens don't eat enough produce. We have one of the sickest populations in the West. Hate to go all valley girl on you but, um helloooooo?
Dr. Murthy is wicked smart. He graduated valedictorian of his high school, did his undergrad at Harvard University (graduating magna cum laude in
three years' time) then got a combined medical
and business degree from Yale. He currently practices at Brigham's and Women's Hospital and get this --- he's 37 years old. I've also read that Dr. Murthy has
almond milk, carrots, and high-protein grains in his fridge, another sign of intelligence :-)
I reward you for reading this post with the following Jon Stewart video:
Chappu (L) and Tippy (R) can often be seen just hangin' out together. Chappu likes to lick Tippy's head and Tippy enjoys it so much she never asks Chappu to stop. Obi used to enjoy Chappu's licking but after a minute or two it ended in a tussle. The relationship these girls have warms my heart. It looks like Tippy has her arm around Chappu... OK tail.
I'm not as tardy as you'd think, seeing as we still have to do the final walk through with the folks who did our remodeling. There have been A LOT of problems. Our biggest complaint is that no one seemed to be overseeing the work that was being done. Instead of a supervisor noticing that the shoe molding hadn't been replaced, that the old paint was showing through the new paint, cabinet doors had gouges in them, a few of the floor planks had lumps under them, the caulking was cracking off, etc. etc. etc., we had to walk around with note pads and keep asking them to come fix stuff. We do like the final results though; here it is from left to right: (click on any pic to enlarge)
Let us know when you're available and we'll invite you over for dinner!
