It’s what all the good vegans have been waiting for. We clipped our toenails. We’ve been counting down. We did calf raises every day for the last four years. We set our phone alarms. We wrote it on our dry-erase calendars so our spouses would know. We’re ready. Are you ready?…
…for #VeganSockWeek!
“How to Be Vegan” Tip 48: Celebrate #VeganSockWeek
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Read this post or never read anything. Care about Paris or care about the other countries that have experienced terrorism. Support the troops or care about a football player who got in trouble. Show compassion toward animals or people. Be a good vegan or join non-vegans for Thanksgiving.
There are so many choices in life, and all of them are black and white. Gray areas are for chumps. Nuance is for jerks. Complexity is for butt-munches. Do you want to be a butt-munch? Probably not.
I learned all of this really smart stuff on Facebook recently, and I just had to share it with you. If we’re going to be ethical people – and perfect vegans – we have to make good choices. And by “good,” I mean all the way at one extreme end of the spectrum. Every spectrum. All the time. Pick a spectrum and move your eyes all the way to one side. Land there. And dig your heels in! People will try to tell you that the issues facing us today are complex! They’re not! Just pick a side. Preferably my side.
“How to Be Vegan” Tip 47: Read this Post or Never Read Anything. Those Are Your Options. Continue reading
The world is small, and it’s even smaller if you do improv. You see, improv is a cult wherein all members are automatically best friends even if they’ve never really “met.” Ugh, technicalities!
Anyway, my best friend Annie Niehoff runs a really awesome blog, which she interviewed me for after I begged her to do so. (I’ll link to that later so you don’t get distracted.) I figured, since Annie let me type words on her blog, it would only be fair to subject her to my snarky awfulness by interviewing her here. Plus maybe I wanted to get to know her better because I think she’s fantastic. Though, not vegan. Sigh. No one’s perfect.
Meet Annie Niehoff.
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Please see my post Beyonce Isn’t Vegan and Neither is Anyone and replace all the “Beyonce”s with “Ellen”s.*
*No, I don’t think it’s cool that Ellen is selling animal products like leather.
*No, I don’t think it’s reasonable to sell (or buy) a $1,500 scarf when that money could be donated to an effective non-profit or spent on food for months.
*Yes, I signed the petition to ask Ellen to drop the leather products. And you should too.
*This is satire. I still love you.
You may have seen on Facebook recently a meme really similar to the one I made – on the right. Can you spot the difference? If you said, “The one on the right is ridiculous, and the unkind, judgmental one going around Facebook is awesome,” you’re right!
Wait, why is it awesome to be unkind and judgmental, you ask? Because we’re animal advocates and our circles of compassion are wide enough without including our fellow humans. It’s too hard to be compassionate toward people with different* backgrounds than us, different** cultures, different*** priorities, or different**** access to resources. We can’t be expected to use up all our kindness on humans. Get your own circle, losers; there’s no room in ours!
“How to Be Vegan” Tip 46: Extend Your Circle of Compassion to Include Animals (and Then Remove Humans) Continue reading
Most of the interviews at Weird! Why Aren’t You Vegan? are with people who are unique and different (read: not vegan). This has the normal people (read: vegans) feeling a little left out. So, to appease the masses, we now – once in a while – feature a regular old, nothin’ special, run-of-the-mill vegan. Today, we meet Kristin Lajeunesse of Will Travel For Vegan Food.
Kristin quit her job and lived in a van so she could travel around the country with the goal of eating at every vegan restaurant. She documented her journey, and has now written a book about it! I have – of course – heard of Kristin’s venture, but what brought us together for this interview was a mutual friend I know from the St. Louis improv community. It’s a small world, or at least country – and Kristin has eaten vegan food in a lot of it!
Meet Kristin Lajeunesse.
I know I’m late to the Beyonce Bashing, but I want to take a moment to address it. I mean make fun of it.
In her Destiny’s Child song, Independent Women (which I link to in a funny manner below), Beyonce starts by asking, “Question: Tell me what you think about me.” Big mistake, Beyonce. Big mistake.
Animal crackers: Are they vegan? Are they even tasty? Does the box make a good purse?
One of my readers asked me recently about whether I eat animal crackers. Now you can stare at my face and delight in my videography skills while I discuss my views on the very important issue of animal crackers. Enjoy!
Click video to play.
To ask a question for Lisa to answer, leave a comment below.
Ahimsa is a term a lot of vegans know and love. Derived from sanskrit, it’s a term that means “compassion” and “not to injure.” I’m all for compassion and not injuring others, which is, like, totally the reason I’m vegan (it’s not because I want to fit in). But is violence ever okay? This question looms especially in the midst of the Baltimore Uprising, during which some (sooome) protesters acted violently. Some police acted violently, too. Violence is on a lot of our minds.
So, I sat down (at separate computers – thanks, Google Docs!) with my friend Allison over at The Book Wheel to discuss. This discussion is purely philosophical and does not necessarily represent our views. In other words, I think we both like to debate, so we may have played devil’s advocate a bit. We raise some controversial issues that you might agree with, or you might disagree with and actually leave me a comment. Win, win, right? Here’s our chat. Continue reading
Disclaimer: This review is not based on personal experience but observations made over a couple hours of watching others. Totally legit.
This past week, I traveled home to the St. Louis area to visit my family and friends. While there, I stayed with my parents, who are currently dealing with the joys and “oy”s of training a new puppy. I also visited my friend, who has a one-year-old human child. After careful comparison, I discovered that, despite claims made by new parents that having a child is much harder and more rewarding, it turns out that having a kid and having a dog are actually completely the same. Continue reading
Weird! Why Aren't You Vegan? 