Two nice young ladies from PETA were at the corner of Broadway and Park this week, handing out free Tofurkys to all that passed by. I grabbed two, and with them will recognize my first Thanksgiving as a pesco-ovo-vegetarian."Why are you a vegetarian?" many people ask me when they discover me passing on the bacon or munching on a Boca burger. "For health reasons, or . . . otherwise?" It's the "otherwise" they hope I won't bring up. No one wants to hear a rant from one of those tree-hugging, polyester-wearing hippie freaks that hold secret meetings in dark rooms, munching on tofu burritos and deciding which pork proccessing plant to set fire to next. If I wanted to get a good reaction of them, I would say "to avoid the condemnation of the Almighty." But I usually just pat my slightly less round tummy and say "so I won't die."
We've been meatless since July, and have no regrets. Since eliminating almost all sugar and counting my calories carefully as well, I have lost 13 pounds in a month. So it is indeed worth it. The only hard part is that meat tastes really, really, deliciously good. But it's that or unclogged arteries, and I'll take the latter.