GO VEGAN. WHY NOT?

Newspaper Hats - Read All About 'em !

                   

             he 
                     

I went on line to find out how to construct a newspaper witch hat.  On the way I found out how to make a pirate hat, a sort of horned hat and, my favorite, shown on the top left, a Printer's hat.  Here's where.

  Decades ago I got my knives sharpened at a Columbus Street cutlery shop owned by an ancient  Italian couple.  She worked at the counter and beyond her you could see him  sharpening knives on a huge pedal-operated wheel.

Each day he wore a paper hat freshly folded that morning.  It reminded me of the carpenter's hat in Alice in Wonderland's nonsense poem The Walrus and The Carpenter.  (Which I can recite because I love it so much.)  This is my old Italian knife sharpener's hat exactly!  I read online that Printers used to wear these when working in their shops.  When I wear this hat for Halloween I'll write this on the front band with a sharpie.

Go Vegan.  Why Not?

Vegan Holiday Sweet Treats

Around this time - oh heck, any time really - I loves me something spicy and sweet.  Here are two items that thrill me.  Both available at Cost Plus and worth grabbing. 

First, Nyakers gingersnaps imported from Sweden, natch.  $10 for a ginormous red 31-ounce tin.  Be warned - THESE ARE ADDICTIVE!!!!!!!!!

And great little baker that I am - and I am a talented baker - I will never produce a snap as perfect as this.

   

Next, Walker's Luxury Mincemeat Tarts.    Imported from the U.K., natch.  $10 for 6.

You can use these with assurance until I produce a mincemeat recipe later in the season.

Just note that they recommend baking for 10 - 12 minutes.  It takes at least 20 - 25 for some nice browning.

I leave you with this sweet treat by Christine Gutleben and Lois Wye from the online Episcopal Cafe:

"Deliberate, selective, intentional and compassionate food choices that align with our spiritual principles are, in part, what makes food a sacrament – a material reality that conveys the divine. We have the choice to experience the sacramentality of creation or its destruction when we purchase, prepare and eat our food  We are not the center of God’s universe. We exist as dependent creatures within diverse and intricate ecosystems and should consider food choices with this in mind."

Go Vegan.  Why not?

Eat Like You Give a Damn, or........Go Vegan II

This is a shout out to CNN's handsome homo Anderson Cooper and his '10 Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse' feature.  After spotlighting the likes of Angelo Mozilo, James Cayne and Alan Greenspan, he ended with US.  You and me. 

WE all colluded and created this insolvency.  Beginning with our own pitiful to non-existent savings accounts.

WE voted for George Bush (twice).  And whether the presidency was stolen or bought, WE allowed it.

WE agreed to go to war in two countries, thus bankrupting our own.

WE spend $720 million DAILY in Iraq alone.  For more on this please visit the American Friends Service Committee website.  And while there, sign the letter to Congress to Defund the Iraq war and Refund needs at home.  What could we do with $720 million a day?

WE passively allowed the dismantling of our constitution.

Now WE have to save ourselves.  And, my friend, that includes reversing the great food recession that is sweeping the world faster than the credit crunch. There are food crises in 37 countries.

George Manbiot writes in the April 2008 London Guardian “There is plenty of food. It is just not reaching     human stomachs....While 100m tonnes of food will be diverted this year to feed cars [ethanol and biofuels], 760m tonnes will be snatched from the mouths of humans to feed animals - which could cover the global food deficit 14 times. If you care about hunger, eat less meat.”

Mark Bittman, who writes the weekly New York Times column The Minimalist, and author of the “How To Cook Everything” also writes about the impact of our meat eating on world hunger: “Though some 800 million people on the planet now suffer from hunger or malnutrition, the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds cattle, pigs and chickens".   And he notes “It’s likely that most of us would do just fine on around 30 grams of protein a day, virtually all of it from plant sources.” [My note: That 30 grams might = 1 cup cooked lentils + 1/4 cup almonds + a cup of broccoli + a baked potato.]

So, I end this post just as I ended my Hummer post.  Would it kill you to abstain from one or two flesh meals a week?

Let's ALL collude to create full bellies and bright futures.

Go Vegan. Why Not?

 

 

 

Go Ahead and Get You a Hummer, or........Go Vegan I

         

Hey there, did you know that there's an actual website title FUH2.com?  That's fuck you and your Hummer too.  I found that out when I was looking for a Hummer snapshot.

The creator of that website doesn't know a few things that I think would take a little bitter steam out of that balloon.  Look, I'm never going to own a Hummer.  At least I don't think so.  We love our Minis and next cars we  get will be SmartCars.    

 

 So, I'm no Hummer apologist.  But, what do you reckon produces about 40 percent more global warming emissions than all the cars, trucks, airplanes and all other forms of transport combined.  Also more than all the homes and offices in the world put together.

That's right, a full 18 percent of global warming emissions come from raising cows, chickens, turkeys, pigs, etc. for food.

It's amazing to me that in Al Gore's noble movie he simply could not bring himself to ask people to take real positive action by not torturing, dismembering, cooking and eating other sentient beings.  I mean.  For god's sake when you have the bully pulpit what's so hard about saying just that?  How many innocent lives he could have saved and torment ended.  For shame.

 

 

 

 

But now you know.  How about backing off one flesh dish a week?  Would it kill you?  Of course not.  Good.  I'm glad that's settled.

 

 

 

Go Vegan.  Why Not?

 

 

 

Vegan Las Vegas

Here's Donnetta Heredia the evening of her birthday feast @ Tao in Las Vegas.  Donnetta's the reason Harrison and I went to Las Vegas.  She's the only reason I would ever have broken my vow to never go to Las Vegas.  But, we'd do just about anything for Donnetta.  So off we went to her three-day extravaganza, featuring a Donnetta-hosted event each day. 

Harrison and I stayed at the elegant Trump Hotel.  I have only this to say.  If you're going to Las Vegas, stay at the Trump.  No slot machines, cigarette smoke, or creepy pumped in deoderizer to mask cigarette smoke.  Oh, and no crappy constant loud rock music piped into everywhere.  Just sophisticated jaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzzzz. 

We absolutely loved mornings in the lobby, drinking the fabulous coffee, chatting, people watching, reading the the hotel's offerings of newspapers: local, New York Post or Wall Street Journal,  (a blessed absence of USA Today thank you very much!), me doing crossword puzzles.  So wonderful.   

 

 

Here is a picture of the bathroom.  If I spent time watching television at all in Las Vegas it was in the bathroom where a TV was part of the mirror.  Not mounted on top or a hole cut in the mirror around it, but amazingly part of the mirror.  There are many high tech, Bladerunner aspects to Las Vegas.  This got my attention more than anything else.

 

 

Let me get this out of the way: Las Vegas is not for Las Vegans.  I mean Us Vegans.  Upon my return to San Francisco I looked up Las Vegas in the Happy Cow travel guide.  Skinny pickin's to say the least and most are not easily accessible for tourists on foot on 'The Strip'.  So, mostly I ate soups and salads making a point not to turn into Little Miss Pain in the Ass demanding everything be purly and verifiably Vegan.  In Las Vegan I also ate, for no reason in particular, lots and lots of french fries.  I gained three pounds in three days, natch. 

The first birthday celebration event was a Friday evening cocktail party at Mix lounge.  Mix is a 64th   floor bar and restaurant atop what's named THEhotel at Mandalay Bay with mind blowing views like those to the right.  WOW!

My Mix bathroom pix didn't come out well enough to show you.  But the effect is something like this picture from the main floor.  When you sit on the toilet it's you alone in a room before a wall of glass with a view of the entire city.  Really.

 

Saturday I agreed to go with Harrison to The Venetian Hotel and see the Venetian canal replica.  In the lobby, on the way to "the streets of Venice", I gambled.  Yes, I played $12 on a slot machine and..................lost $12.

         

And so, heart heavy, we marched on over to 'Venice".  Well, I gotta say.  It's a perfect stage set.  Especially the lighting.  Just like when the day is winding down, twilight approaches, people come home and start preparing dinner, home lights become visible.   And honest to goddess they were playing the soundtrack from the Godfather!  Italian-American ineed.  I don't think there's much else to say about it.  You don't imagine you've just stepped off a Vaporetto, yet it is charming enough.

 A 'Canal' was actually created and people do pay for short 'gondola rides' with a singing 'gondolier'.  I didn't follow the advice of travel guru Rick Steves and take a midnight gondola ride when we were actually in Venice.  I wasn't going to take one in Vegas.

The Saturday evening event was dinner at the fabulous Tao.  An Asian fusion restaurant festuring a mammoth gold seated Buddah looming over three floors of dining.  It's tough to see scale from this photo but here's a picture of the Buddah.  Donnetta, goddess that she is, had requested that the chef concoct a Vegan dinner for me, he did, and it was very good.

This is the evening that Donnetta's picture was taken.  The afro was inspired and I don't know when she's ever looked more beautiful.  It must have been all of the love focussed upon her.

Our final event in Las Vegas was held in a private cabana "beachside" at Mandalay Bay.  It was a hot hot day but we were in the shade with a cooler of iced drinks and 'cabana girls' making the rounds to take our food orders.  It was, I swear to goddess, the first time in Las Vegas I saw a veggie burger offered on a menu.  I ordered it, along with onion rings, natch.  It was so wonderful.I never ever wanted to visit Las Vegas.  But I am so glad I did.  Thanks Donnetta!