Skewered – The Meat Supremacy
Screw the figgy pudding!
This is a true story. No embellishment. No histrionics.
Now the goose is on the table
And the pudding made of fig
And the blue and silver candles
That would just have matched the hair in grandma’s wig
Every great story has meat on a stick. This story is no exception. I love skewers.
Long story short, I’ve known my wife for seven years now. For most of those years we have traveled to her uncle’s for Christmas. The first time there we stayed in a Super 8 motel. Directly across the street was a strip mall with a restaurant excitingly labeled “Kabobs.”
I wanted to go. Bad.
Alas, my wishes were vetoed and quashed by She Who Must Be Obeyed. She said no. I think her exact words were something along the lines of, “We’re here to spend time with family. Not to eat damn kabobs.” Thus, it was decided. We didn’t go.
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Vegetarian by the tail
Leave me alone!
This time on Tails of the Vegetarian:
As I approach the completion of my fifth full month of being an ovo-lacto-vegetarian, I thought I would share some highlights of the experience so far.
My birthday – At the mandatory lame office “party” where we all have to go in the back and stand around awkwardly while we consume lame pizza, the company thoughtfully provided the “meat lover’s pizza.” (And no drinks, like always.) This was about one month into my vegetarian odyssey and I even reminded them that I was vegetarian the day before. At lunch they acted shocked and quickly ran back out to get me a vegetarian sandwich from the pizza place.
Worcestershire sauce – I was saddened to learn one of my favorite things contains anchovies of all things! But I have found some recipes for vegetarian version that I haven’t tried it yet.
Office Birthday #2 – There is almost nothing worse than having to “party” for your boss. Again we are forced to stand around and lamely “celebrate.” This time my vegetarian status was actually remembered. They got two pizzas. One with meat and one for me. They didn’t bother to ask, however, what toppings I wanted. That had to be the worst tomato and green bell pepper pizza of my life.
The Employee Luncheon – Yeah. Standing around in the back for no particular reason at all. This time one of my co-workers decided to treat the office to lunch. Again my vegetarian status was recognized. The plan: Get a grocery store platter consisting of meats and, of course, lots of veggies for me. Our office manager went to pick it up. Unfortunately store didn’t have any platters so the boss made executive decisions. Again I was not asked what I wanted. She brought back sandwiches for everyone else and a Caesar salad for me. I’m no foodie but I know one thing: Yep, you guessed it. Anchovies are a common ingredient in Caesar salad. I checked the label on the salad. Bingo! Anchovies again! Boy did that surprise the nitwit.
Please, universe. Hear my plea! Don’t send any more “thoughtful” people my way. Thanks so much.
Intelligence is a beach
Howdy lab rats.
Today we find that the universe has washed up two pieces of flotsam on my shore. Let’s take a look.
Flotsam #1
Is it dumb to start smoking? I happen to think so. But that’s just one pompous dork’s opinion, right? Maybe not. According to a story published by Reuters Health on Feb. 23, 2010, young men who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day (or more) had an average IQ that was 7.5 points lower than their non-smoking counterparts. The study was conducted on 20,111 young men, all 18-years old, who were recruited into the Israeli military.
Researchers have long known about correlations between smoking and other factors like age, education level, and economic status.
Age has a dramatic linear progression on smoking rate. By age group, the smoking rates reported by the CDC are:
18-24 = 28.5%
25-44 = 25.7%
45-64 = 22.7%
65 and older = 9.3%
According to the CDC, “Educational attainment has been associated consistently with adult smoking prevalence since 1983.” Persons with a GED had a reported smoking rate of 42.3 percent. For those with a high school diploma the rate dropped to 25.6% and the rate was only 7.2% for those with graduate degrees.
The poverty level also has a correlation on the smoking rate. For those above the poverty level the rate is 22.2% while for those under the rate jumps to 32.9%.
In addition to IQ scores, I think an argument can be make for “intelligence” in these other factors, too, like age, education level and economic status.
Flotsam #2
Just the other day, on Feb. 26, 2010, I saw a report on CNN that linked some other interesting factors to intelligence as well. They are: liberalism, atheism, and male sexual exclusivity. The non-smoking factor I can easily accept at face value, but this shit just got interesting!
According to the study these traits are not evolutionary in the sense that they would have “benefited” the survival of the species.
The reasoning is that sexual exclusivity in men, liberalism and atheism all go against what would be expected given humans’ evolutionary past. In other words, none of these traits would have benefited our early human ancestors, but higher intelligence may be associated with them.
“The adoption of some evolutionarily novel ideas makes some sense in terms of moving the species forward,” said George Washington University leadership professor James Bailey, who was not involved in the study. “It also makes perfect sense that more intelligent people — people with, sort of, more intellectual firepower — are likely to be the ones to do that.”
Flotsam #3
This one isn’t new, but I can’t help adding it to the mix. Vegetarianism also has a link to intelligence. A study found that children with a high IQ are more likely to become vegetarians later in life. You can read about it here on the BBC News web site as reported on Dec. 16, 2006.
Please pardon me while I pause to take a personal inventory.
- Non-smoker? Check!
- Liberal? Check!
- Atheist? Check!
- Sexual exclusivity? Check!
- Vegetarian? For about 3-1/2 months now. Check!
Damn. I am one smart hombre. 🙂
Jesus is the reason for the seasonings
This is a food post. I’d have to go back and look to be sure, but I think today is about 50 days of vegetarianism for me. Here’s some quickie thoughts on how I made it through the holidays:
Christmas Eve: Veggie pizza.
Christmas Day: Breakfast was delicious eggs benedict with a slice of tomato and avocado. Lunch was an onion tart. Dinner was vegetable minestrone.
Day after Christmas: This was a family gathering at a seafood restaurant. I asked, “what do they have for vegetarians?” The response, “side salad.” Argh! It all worked out, though. I had a dinner salad and the jalapeno poppers appetizers.
Today was leftovers and kickin’ it with no family around. Nothing but rest and relaxation to prepare for the grind which begins anew tomorrow.
For treats we had peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, Christmas candy, chocolate truffles and a slice of pumpkin pie.
For booze we had tequila, wine and champagne mimosas. (Not all in the same glass.)
I made it through just fine. Mrs. Abyss opted to go with fish at the seafood restaurant.
Shouts from the Abyss 
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