11/06/2002 - 1:07 a.m. | FOOD PYRAMID!

So, tonight (no Astronomy - again!) I went to this lecture with Lisa. The speaker was this former cattle rancher named Howard Lyman who became a vegetarian and ended up sorta famous (remember when Oprah got in trouble with all those Texas beef men? He was the one who got her in all that). I dunno - I'm always on the lookout for new perspective on this vegetarian thing. I mean, there are lots of reasons I should be one - moral, economic, envirnomental, health, etc. - but I don't have that sort of passion to put up with the little annoyances it would cause. Like, I know exercise is good for me, but you don't see me running the mile everyday. It's just easier to go about business as usual. Society is generally made up of omnivores, and it caters to them. If you don't annoy the animals (by killing them), you annoy society (by being all whiny about what's on the menu). But, I digress. I am seeking conversion by anyone who can do the job. This wasn't the guy.

I mean, he was a good enough speaker: interesting, passionate, articulate. But he didn't really talk about what we thought. Like, he touched on vegetarianism, but he also went on lots of other tangets - global warming, his life story, lots of name dropping, chronic wasting disease (hehe - funniest name ever... sounds like infinite diarrhea) and Lisa thinks he made up some of his statistics. This is not to say I didn't learn anything, though. And I picked up a copy of his book, so maybe I'll learn some more. I'll get passion yet!

The best part of the speech was the question and answer part when these guys - obvious rural archetypes - started trying to argue with Lyman about whether or not vegetarianism was really better. Wrong audience, buddy, but was he ever hilarious! He says, "So, let's say I went out to the middle of the forest and shot a deer, and it didn't have any diseases, and I ate it... Is there something morally wrong about that? If I still eat my vegetables!" The speaker had never mentioned morals at all, so this guy was just bringing up random stuff, which was awesome. Then he started talking about how humans are carnivores because of our teeth ("Look, I have canines!") and when the speaker started to argue, the guy just yelled out "FOOD PYRAMID!!" He left shortly after. I laughed a little too loud.

One guy called it "vegetarism." Newbie. Unless it's a religion I am unaware of.

Then another couple episodes of "Boy Meets World." Oy.