A fellow blogger, I think we'll call him Blogger from Marin or (BfM), published a post that I found thought provoking. He was writing about the "Slow Food" movement, and brought up some interesting stuff.
Slow Food has nothing to do with stuff like how a PowerBar moves through your colon. It's just the antithesis of Fast Food.
He mentioned the mantra of many vegans, vegetarians, and such: "It's wrong to eat anything with a face." All right. I can see where that might be off-putting.
But they must not mean fish. Or chickens. Does a prawn or a crawdad have a face? Do oysters? Besides, we don't care, right? Or is it just me?
Now, what I think many people mean is they don't think we should eat animals that have a biological kinship or some other sort of connection with us. Like primates or most other mammals, for instance. I don't know about you, but I don't feel a lot of connection with fish. Or turkeys.
What are we really talking about, here? Man's god-given right to dominion over the animal kingdom? Cuddly cute little animals being anthropomorphized? The right of all living creatures to the pursuit of happiness without fear of being snatched up and eaten? How good ribs taste?
You have to be very p-c these days when discussing this issue. I mean animal rights, not how good ribs taste. A guy can easily get into a fistfight over what's the best method of making ribs, no doubt, but that's not the topic under scrutiny today.
I've learned, recently, to be more sensitive about other people's feellings, and to be aware that people just might have crazy-ass opinions about this mess. For example: now when I'm asked, "Don't (I) just love little furry animals?" I've learned not to say, "Well, it depends on how they're cooked."
For some reason, that perfectly rational answer enrages some people, and makes them spray paint on my shirt.
WTF?
I suppose, this means that some people have been thinking. Instead of considering the recipe ingredients we get from the Supermarket, butcher shop, Fishmonger's, Costco, etc., as nicely packaged, hopefully sanitary and safe to eat things you make for dinner, they're looking at them as the result of carnage. They view it as populations of kindred beings being subjected to mass murder, dismemberment, and other horrors.
That's one way to look at it.
It was this kind of thinking, although it came from a much more personal viewpoint than any of us will (hopefully) have to experience, that clinched Ferdinand's banishment from Hogget Farm.* If you remember, it was the presentation of his friend at the farmer's holiday table (as the main course) that prompted him to crow his famously rash condemnation from the tip of the weathervane, "Christmas means carnage!"
But that's not all. They're thinking about the factory farms where animals are inhumanely penned, fed unnatural diets, pumped up with hormones and other poisons, etc, THEN led to the abattoir.
That's enough to put you off your food.
But, where will this kind of thinking lead?
Look what it got Ferdinand.
Anyways, let's move on to the real reason I'm blogging today. Dweebert's been pestering me to post a new one, but I'd forgotten my account ID and my password. Pff! That's not all! I also forgot how to post pictures 'n stuff!
I finally got logged on, as you can tell, but I still don't remember the other important blogging stuff. I guess you'll just have to wait, while I experiment.
Dum
de
dum
de
dum.
OK! I'm back! If there was a picture posted at the beginning of this post, then, I did it! If not, then....crap.
It's a bit like time warps. You're seeing (or not) something first in your blog experience that I saw last.
Wow. Maybe there's a post in that....
Prolly not. But be sure to check back some time for another fascinating look at something in my next blog post, whatever it might be!
*"Babe"
This is one of the most profound movies ever made. If you haven't seen it, well...that's awful. (It's nothing like "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang".)
9 comments:
Long ago, in the land of the Pontiacs, before there was Peteness, there lived a skinny boy known on Osceola Street as Pete Pete the Garbage Meat. This name was bestowed by a girl of great beauty and charm, Janine Hebert of the Fisher Body Heberts, upon seeing Pete down a spam sandwich that had fallen in the dirt. PPGM took no offense to this, in no small part due to his feelings for the hazel eyed Janine. She was mostly repelled by Pete's garbage meat willingness, and her sparks did not fly in his direction, but her term of endearment stuck and PPGM embarked upon a path of meatiness the likes of which humbled many a GM line hump. Yes, his skinniness left him after years of dogged pursuit of the perfect meat. The home of the GTOs faded, and burned. PPGM was wounded, but managed to escape and took solace from seeking out like minded men of meat. His appetites no longer touch off the odd urban legend, but his love of meat goes on. Tippin' one to the taste of ribs, PPGM
P.S. It didn't help when Dizzy Gillespie penned, "HEY PETE, LET"S EAT MORE MEAT!"
Ok, I'll bite. As you undoubtedly know I am very much aligned with slow food. Like 1-1.5 hrs/lbs to smoke a Boston butt @225 in the Primo.
Now speaking of that slowly butchered Pata Negra, think about how long it takes to finish off that Jamon Iberico. At nearly $100/lbs you can bet your right cheek your going to take your time carving up that delicacy.
Thank you, P'niss, for your poetical retelling of the much loved tall -tale, "Pete-pete 'da Garbich Meat". It has always been one of my favorites.
Funny you should bring it up. I've always wondered if the lithe and striking Janine was an "Eber" or a "Hee-bert". I was just pondering this the other day....
Gaah,
It's strange that you should bring up Boston Butt just after P'niss left a comment.
Co-incidence?
I think not.
Well now, the subject of meat is a touchy one. It makes my canine teeth ache to think about it. Matter a fack, I was thinking of making a pilgrimage to Africa with the intention of convincing all the lions there to become vegetarians. Can you imagine a world in which lions no longer eat other cute animals, all living and sleeping together? Can you? Well, I can.
Dweebs:
Good observation!
I saw a painting, once, of that very tableaux. You know, the one where the lion lies down with the lamb.
However; I believe that the very next, but unshown, moment is where the lion grabs up most of the other animals by the throat and tears out their jugulars, thence preparing to settle back down for a leisurely lunch with his lionesses and offspring.
It's just "....the way things are.*"
Yours in bro'ness,
Vance
*Babe.
I really can't believe that any brother of mine could get through life without ever seeing "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang". That's on a par with never having had sex or having tasted asparagus. It's like never having heard "Mercury Blues". It's like never having gone to a Go-Gos concert. It's appalling!
Dweebert,
You know my feelin's about monkey movies. They do that thing which I don't approve of (in public).
I appreciate it wasn't a diatribe about me not posting something new.
But, check it out! FIRST LOVE
Vance
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