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1. “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.”  ~ Paul McCartney
2. “Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant?  I’m halfway through my fishburger and I realize, Oh my God.  I could be eating a slow learner.”  ~ Lynda Montgomery
3. “I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.”  ~ A. Whitney Brown
4. “Everyone’s a pacifist between wars. It’s like being a vegetarian between meals.” ~ Colman McCarthy
5. “Cruelty to animals can become violence to humans.” ~ Ali MacGraw
6. “I don’t understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic, while it is medically conservative to cut people open and put them on cholesterol-lowering drugs for the rest of their lives.” ~ Dean Ornish, M.D.
7. “Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.” ~ Froude
8. “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” ~ Mohandas Gandhi
9. “You’re thinking I’m one of those wise-ass California vegetarians who is going to tell you that eating a few strips of bacon is bad for your health. I’m not. I say its a free country and you should be able to kill yourself at any rate you choose, as long as your cold dead body is not blocking my driveway.” ~ Scott Adams, writer of Dilbert
10. “Humans are the only hunters who kill when not hungry.” ~ Steven Speilberg
11. “I turned vegetarian after 9/11. A friend of mine came back from New York and said that he couldn’t stand the smell of burnt flesh. It immediately reminded me of a barbecue.” ~ Alyssa Milano
12. “I sometimes think, would I drink the milk from the breast of a woman I don’t know? No. So I think, why would I drink it from a cow.” ~ Devon Aoki
13. “I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent this implication that some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, or I might be a vegetarian, make me any less of an American. ” ~ Peter Seeger

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Way back in the 15th century, many household objects such as pots and jars were made of a type of clay called “pygg”.  As it happened people often saved up their money by storing it in those kitchen pots and jars, calling them “pygg jars.”  Sometime in the 18th century, apparently someone asked for a “pygg bank” expecting a clay container to store money in; however it resulted in a pig-shaped bank.  Thus, an icon was born.

Source: Uncommon Goods catalog

When I first started this experiment and began to haunt vegan and vegetarian forums, blogs and the like, I began to discover a very complex society all of its own. The only comparison I have is religion. People feel very strongly about the choices they make in life regarding what they eat, what other people think they should eat, and whether or not those choices should go beyond just their dietary nature. Some people feel more strongly than others, and like religion, the more passionate about their beliefs, the more enthusiastic and sometimes the more venomous and close minded some people can be.

So, I’ve compiled a list of definitions, I believe that most Vegans and Vegetarians (all types) wish everyone else knew and understood. Anyone can correct me if they feel I’m wrong; in fact, I love learning new things, so please feel free to add on.

header by samulli

first, the stuff that won’t start any fights…

• Vegan — A person who has chosen a lifestyle of compassion with the intention to end the suffering and exploitation of animals; his or her diet excludes animal flesh (meat, poultry, fish and seafood), animal products (eggs and dairy), and usually excludes honey.  Beyond his/her diet, his/her lifestyle also excludes the wearing and use of animal products (leather, silk, wool, lanolin, gelatin…).  The major vegan societies all disallow honey, but some vegans still use it.  Some vegans also refuse to eat yeast products.
• Vegetarian – A person whose diet is mainly plant-based and excludes animal flesh (meat, poultry, fish and seafood), but may or may not consume dairy products or eggs.
• Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian — A person who follows a plant-based diet, excluding all animal flesh (meat, poultry, fish and seafood), but also consumes eggs and milk and milk products. This is the most common form of vegetarianism in the Western world.  Most vegetarian restaurants in America serve Lacto-Ovo meals.
• Lacto Vegetarian — A person who follows a plant-based diet, excluding all animal flesh (meat, poultry, fish and seafood) as well as eggs, but also consumes milk and milk products. This is common in India and most vegetarian restaurants in India serve Lacto Vegetarian meals.
• Ovo Vegetarian — A person who follows a plant-based diet, excluding all animal flesh (meat, poultry, fish and seafood) and milk and milk products, but also consumes eggs.  Many people are ovo vegetarians because they are lactose-intolerant.
• Fruitarian — A person who follows a vegan diet, but only eats foods that don’t kill the plant.  For example, picking apples does not kill the tree, but you cannot have carrots without killing the plant.

now for the controversial stuff…

• Dietary Vegan — A person who follows a plant-based, animal-free diet, but does not necessarily follow the strict lifestyle of non-use of animal products.  It is important to note that the use of this term often causes controversy — many vegans feel it takes away from the spirit of their ideology and cause, while many strict/pure vegetarians feel it is the only term that clearly separates them from Lacto-Ovo Vegetarians in society’s eye.  Using this term to describe yourself on a Vegan/Vegetarian forum is likely to start a flame-war.
• Psuedo-Vegetarian – A person who claims to be a vegetarian, but isn’t.  This is a term used by Vegans and Vegetarians to describe semi-vegetarians and pescetarians.
• Pescetarian/Pesco-Vegetarian — A person who generally follows a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet and also consumes fish and seafood but no other meat; this type of pseudo-vegetarianism is not accepted by Vegan and Vegetarian societies. It’s possible that the Catholic practice of eating fish on Fridays during Lent led to the Western cultural misunderstanding that pescetarians are the same as vegetarians.  In fact, I often have run into co-workers and others who believe that as long as fish or seafood is on the menu, “the vegetarians” in the group will have something to eat — this was only further confused by the fact that I was a pescetarian for a few years.
• Pollo-Vegetarian — A person who generally follows a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet and also consumes poultry, but no other meat.  This is considered to be a semi-vegetarian diet, which is not an actual vegetarian diet at all.
• Flexitarian — A person who considers him/herself to be a semi-vegetarian focusing on vegetarian food with occasional meat consumption. There are no guidelines for how much or how little meat one must eat before being classified a flexitarian. Flexitarians sometimes refer to themselves as “almost vegetarians” — most actual vegetarians do not appear to appreciate this. In fact, this is a good way to start an argument in any kind of diet or food-based forum.
• Semi-Vegetarian — A person who follows a diet which excludes some meat (particularly red meat) from the  diet while still consuming limited amounts of poultry, fish, and/or seafood. A semi-vegetarian may also be a flexitarian. Semi-vegetarian diets are not vegetarian diets.
• Raw Vegan – A person who consumes only unprocessed vegan foods that have not been heated above 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius). “Raw foodists” believe that foods cooked above this temperature have lost a significant amount of their nutritional value and are harmful to the body.  Proponents claim that there are many benefits to the diet, including weight loss, more energy, clear skin and improved overall health.  This may or may not be a fad diet; we will see.

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The potato chip was was invented at Moon’s Lake House in 1853 at Saratoga Springs.

In 1960, the ratio of the average Fortune 500 CEO pay to the US president’s salary was 2 to 1. Today it is 30 to 1…The highest-paid CEO in 2004 was Terry Semel of Yahoo, with $230 million, or $630,000 a day. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Markets, limits his pay to ≤14 times the pay of his average employee. The average CEO’s salary in the USA now is 475 times greater than the average worker’s salary; in Japan, it is 11 times greater; in France, 15 times; in Canada, 20; in South Africa, 21; and in Britain, 22. (Facts and Ideas From Anywhere:  Pay of Chief Officers , 2006)

“…what kind of information in personal ads is considered the most (and least) desirable? Two economists and a psychologist recently banded together to address these questions. Günter J. Hitsch, Ali Hortaçsu, and Dan Ariely analyzed the data from one of the mainstream dating sites, focusing on more than 20,000 active users, half in Boston and half in San Diego. Fifty-six percent of the users were men, and the median age range for all users was twenty-one to thirty-five. Although they represented an adequate racial mix to reach some conclusions about race, they were predominantly white. They were also a lot richer, taller, skinnier, and better-looking than average. That, at least, is what they wrote about themselves. More than 4 percent of the online daters claimed to earn more than $200,000 a year, whereas fewer than 1 percent of typical Internet users actually earn that much, suggesting that three of the four big earners were exaggerating. Male and female users typically reported that they are about an inch taller than the national average. As for weight, the men were in line with the national average, but the women typically said they weighed about twenty pounds less than the national average. Most impressively, fully 72 percent of the women claimed “above average” looks, including 24 percent claiming “very good looks.” The online men too were gorgeous: 68 percent called themselves “above average,” including 19 percent with “very good looks.” This leaves only about 30 percent of the users with “average” looks, including a paltry 1 percent with “less than average” looks—which suggests that the typical online dater is either a fabulist, a narcissist, or simply resistant to the meaning of “average.” (Or perhaps they are all just pragmatists: as any real-estate agent knows, the typical house isn’t “charming” or “fantastic,” but unless you say it is, no one will even bother to take a look.) Twenty-eight percent of the women on the site said they were blond, a number far beyond the national average, which indicates a lot of dyeing, or lying, or both. Some users, meanwhile, were bracingly honest. Seven percent of the men conceded that they were married, with a significant minority of these men reporting that they were “happily married.” But the fact that they were honest doesn’t mean they were rash. Of the 243 “happily married” men in the sample, only 12 chose to post a picture of themselves. The reward of gaining a mistress was evidently outweighed by the risk of having your wife discover your personal ad. (“And what were you doing on that website?” the husband might bluster, undoubtedly to little avail.) Of the many ways to fail on a dating website, not posting a photo of yourself is perhaps the most certain. (Not that the photo necessarily is a photo of yourself; it may well be some better-looking stranger, but such deception would obviously backfire in time.) A man who does not include his photo gets only 60 percent of the volume of e-mail response of a man who does; a woman who doesn’t include her photo gets only 24 percent as much. A low-income, poorly educated, unhappily employed, not very attractive, slightly overweight, and balding man who posts his photo stands a better chance of gleaning some e-mails than a man who says he makes $200,000 and is deadly handsome but doesn’t post a photo. There are plenty of reasons someone might not post a photo—he’s technically challenged or is ashamed of being spotted by friends or is just plain unattractive—but as in the case of a brand-new car with a For Sale sign, prospective customers will assume he’s got something seriously wrong under the hood. Getting a date is hard enough as it is. Fifty-six percent of the men who post ads don’t receive even one e-mail; 21 percent of the women don’t get a single response. The traits that do draw a big response, meanwhile, will not be a big surprise to anyone with even a passing knowledge of the sexes. In fact, the preferences expressed by online daters fit snugly with the most common stereotypes about men and women. For instance, men who say they want a long-term relationship do much better than men looking for an occasional lover. But women looking for an occasional lover do great. For men, a woman’s looks are of paramount importance. For women, a man’s income is terribly important. The richer a man is, the more e-mails he receives. But a woman’s income appeal is a bell-shaped curve: men do not want to date low-earning women, but once a woman starts earning too much, they seem to be scared off. Women are eager to date military men, policemen, and firemen (possibly the result of a 9/11 Effect, …), along with lawyers and doctors; they generally avoid men with manufacturing jobs. For men, being short is a big disadvantage (which is probably why so many lie about it), but weight doesn’t much matter. For women, being overweight is deadly (which is probably why they lie). For a man, having red hair or curly hair is a downer, as is “bald with a fringe”—but a shaved head is okay. For a woman, salt-and-pepper hair is bad, while blond hair is, not surprisingly, very good. In addition to all the information about income, education, and looks, men and women on the dating site listed their race. They were also asked to indicate a preference regarding the race of their potential dates. The two preferences were “the same as mine” or “it doesn’t matter.” Like the Weakest Link contestants, the website users were now publicly declaring how they felt about people who didn’t look like them. They would reveal their actual preferences later, in confidential e-mails to the people they wanted to date. Roughly half of the white women on the site and 80 percent of the white men declared that race didn’t matter to them. But the response data tell a different story. The white men who said that race didn’t matter sent 90 percent of their e-mail queries to white women. The white women who said race didn’t matter sent about 97 percent of their e-mail queries to white men. This means that an Asian man who is good-looking, rich, and well educated will receive fewer than 25 percent as many e-mails from white women as a white man with the same qualifications would receive; similarly, black and Latino men receive about half as many e-mails from white women as they would if they were white. Is it possible that race really didn’t matter for these white women and men and that they simply never happened to browse a nonwhite date that interested them? Or, more likely, did they say that race didn’t matter because they wanted to come across—especially to potential mates of their own race—as open-minded?” (Freakonomics Rev. Ed., Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner)

Granted, I had a little head start since I was already sampling vegetarian foods on my strictish medically prescribed pescetarian diet, but since August 1rst, I’ve become a super-cautious label reader and had my mind and stomach educated quite a bit — and this is just the transition. So, I thought I’d also get a head start and list some vegan foods I already like.

1. Silk Soymilk — plain, vanilla, even the light.
2. Amy’s Rice Crust Spinach Pizza — the faux cheese doesn’t really melt but I liked the texture of the rice crust and was delighted with the taste.
3. It’s All Good Tuscan Breast — faux chicken in a tomato and basil sauce.  Since my kidney diagnosis, I have been on the hunt for a faux chicken that – well – tasted like chicken and had the look and texture of chicken, like you see when those chicken breasts are being pulled apart in the KFC commercials.  These aren’t that perfect a match, but they are the closest I’ve found.
4. It’s All Good BBQ Pulled Shreds (Southwestern Style) — the box recommends you should just heat and load it up on a bun, which I swear to you really is as “delish” as the box promises (and kickin’ spicy too); this past weekend, I added it to some gnochi that didn’t turn out as well as I like and suddenly the gnochi was better than I’d planned.  Yum!
5. Triscuits — Who knew this oldie but goodie was a vegan delight?  Even my therapist thanked me for validating her healthy eating choice.  I like mine with hummus or dipped in my vegan Thai tofu and rice veggie soup.
6. Flavored Tofu — I know I can marinate it myself, but I’m a busy person.  It’s nice to be able to grab a couple of packages of smoked, Italian, or Asian flavored tofu at the store (careful to check for the vegan stamp on the label, of course) so I can just dice up a quick snack or meal if time is tight later.
7. Smoothies — Fruit, soymilk, soy yogurt, ice, flax seeds, oatmeal, and maybe a few leafy things now; it’s always been a treat, now I can claim it as one of my vegan foods too.
8. Terra Nostra Organic Rice Milk Chocolate Bar — ‘Nuf said.
9. Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese (Non-hydrogenated) so I don’t have to have dry bagels.
10. Apple Cinnamon Cheerio’s — Honestly, if I hadn’t looked at Peta’s I Can’t Believe It’s Vegan! site, I never would have thought any of the name brand cereals were vegan.  Fruit Loops?  Really?
11. Fruits — most kinds; I probably only dislike it if I haven’t tried it before or I don’t know how to peel it.
12. Vegetables — the standards; I’m willing to taste test new ones, but only if someone can point them out to me in the grocery store.
13. Grains & Pasta — the only thing that keeps me from adventuring into new territory is large containers or lack or availability locally.  As a single person, I’m not going to order a case of whole grain orzo over the Internet just to try it out.  That would probably last me 5 or 6 years.

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Listerine … was invented in the nineteenth century as a powerful surgical antiseptic. It was later sold, in distilled form, as a floor cleaner and a cure for gonorrhea. But it wasn’t a runaway success until the 1920s, when it was pitched as a solution for “chronic halitosis”—a then obscure medical term for bad breath. Listerine’s new ads featured forlorn young women and men, eager for marriage but turned off by their mate’s rotten breath. “Can I be happy with him in spite of that?” one maiden asked herself. Until that time, bad breath was not conventionally considered such a catastrophe. But Listerine changed that. As the advertising scholar James B. Twitchell writes, “Listerine did not make mouthwash as much as it made halitosis.” In just seven years, the company’s revenues rose from $115,000 to more than $8 million. (Freakonomics Rev. Ed.,  Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner)

1. I caught the chicken pox from a girl at my birthday party when I was 5 years old.  I have a vivid memory of the blue jumpsuit I was wearing that day and also listening to my mother, the nurse,  talking on the telephone to someone — “No, I’m sure it’s nothings.  Go ahead and send her over.”  Everyone at the party caught the chicken pox as a party favor.
2. I have had a hairline fracture in my left elbow twice in my life before I was 12 years old, but in the same exact place; first when I felt out of a tree and then when I was running on wet grass, slipped, and landed on top of my arm.  The doctors  told my mother that if it happens a third time, I will be paralyzed from the elbow down.  (Thus, my skateboard was taken away and I never learned to ski.)
3. I wrote a sci-fi novel in high school and I have the rejection letters from Random House and Bantam to prove it.
4. I got sent home from Baptist Vacation Bible School once for  wearing my skirt too short — and I was the teacher.
5. I once told my mother I wouldn’t date a boy because I didn’t know where he’d been.
6. I do not believe extra-terrestrials have visited Earth, but I have seen ghosts and experienced paranormal activity.
7. I used to be a stand-up comedienne.
8. I was once mugged on a first date in the driveway of the home of a police officer; the mugger told us not to call the police.  We didn’t; we just went inside and told his dad — it was the fastest I ever saw the New Orleans PD arrive at a crime scene ever.  Oh, and I had a flat tire.
9. I have been in at least one car accident every year since 1995 when I purchased my Jeep Cherokee Sport; I have only been the cause of 1.  Until 2 years ago, there was never any damage to the Jeep, but now the other vehicles are getting bigger, big enough to make an impact.
10. I have had my gall bladder removed, a kidney biopsy (which they don’t give you anesthesia or painkillers for), and Lasik eye surgery, and I still believe that by far, the Lasik was the most painful thing I’ve every done to myself on purpose.
11. I like to sprinkle salt on my apple slices.
12. I’ll take a Maine Winter over a New Orleans Summer any time.
13. I lived most of my  life in the South and never had any issue with the Confederate flag nor did I understand why so many people made such a big deal in so many cases…until I moved up North.  I recently saw one hanging on a flag pole on a local residence and I saw a different context.  There are different messages of pride, y’all.

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“Recent findings from a longterm research project by Harvard Medical School links egg consumption with increased risk for Type 2 Diabetes. Subjects who ate an average of one egg per day were 58 to 77 percent more likely to develop the disease than those who do not consume chicken ova. The study of 57,000 adults found that the high cholesterol content in eggs raises blood sugar and insulin levels, leaving those with a genetic disposition to diabetes at greater risk for developing the disorder. However, the results also suggest that any foods high in cholesterol are likely to promote the development of diabetes, and researchers recommend that those at risk for the disease limit cholesterol in their diets. while all animal products are high in cholesterol, plant foods are naturally cholesterol-free. Research done by Dr. John McDougall and others indicates that Type 2 diabetes can be prevented and reversed with a vegan diet.” (VegNews, August 2009)