Soooo… do you eat meat?
Haha. Awesome pick-up line. Extra points for double entendre.
But seriously, do you? And what made you decide? Just like bacon waaaay too much to give it up or, conversely, want no part of the evil animal cruelty industry? This here contest-winning essay is the clearest argument I’ve ever heard for eating meat and how. And I’m a vegetarian! …Who’s currently feeling a wee bit swayed. Except that it’s been so long and I seriously don’t miss the taste of meat, and, most of all, there’s a real onus here to put some heavy lifting into knowing, before you bite in, what’s local and what’s not. I’m all for doing yo’ homework but if you’re like me, eating out in a big city like LA, I just don’t know how feasible it is. But I do know that choosing how to eat based on environment is one of those back-to-basics, smart ideas. (I might have a little foodie crush on Michael Pollan and all he stands for.)
But party line: this is a great, super short essay to arm yourself with because the subject WILL arise inevitably, be it a dinner party or even just a soiree with passed hors d’oeuvres. As you flirt with the caterers. Which I always recommend. A) spreading the love and making them feel like real people is its own reward and B) they’ll often swoop in and save the day once you’ve got ’em on your side.
Bonus: there’s a lovely handling of ethics here, which always lends depth to any conversation. That poem at the end is fantastic and led me on a whole scavenger hunt of other poems by this Polish women I’d never heard of, Wislawa Szymborska. (Ps. Oh, um, turns out she won a Nobel Prize in literature. She’s kind of a big deal.)
There is nothing more animal-like
than a clear conscience
on the third planet of the Sun.
(PS. Anyone know how to fix the paragraph SNAFU’s on this page? I like my paragraphs clean ‘n pretty and wordpress seems to be overriding my edits! Harrumph.)
The Smarty at the Party 