I would love to be a vegan but unless I want to slowly kill myself (I'm allergic to grains) I just can't. I love the idea of not eating animals, in fact wouldn't it be great if we ate nothing at all? It's not possible.

I think the greatest animal rights activist is Temple Grandin. She believes eating animals is moral and has developed ways to make their suffering less and our productivity more. Most of the slaughterhouses use her methods because she understands cows like a cow. No they are not scared by what you and I are (we are predators after all) but by their own unique view of the world as prey. She says they are not thinking they are dying, when going to be killed, but are more afraid by shadows, of textures in the ground etc. So vegans cows don't think like us.

A more realistic and helpful approach is coming to terms with the fact humans will always eat meat and how to help the human and animal alike.

(P.S. Amy thinks wheat is murder but she is not marching down streets, annoying people and trying to ban it)

> (P.S. Amy thinks wheat is murder but she is not marching down streets, annoying people and trying to ban it)

I disagree entirely with vegans, but (a) Amy doesn't think wheat is murder, she thinks its unhealthy, and (b) if someone TRULY thinks that X is a crime against an innocent third party, it seems reasonable to march and cause a big scene.

In 1830 if an abolitionist truly thinks that blacks are human beings with full human rights, then a march against slavery is entirely appropriate.

In 1990 is a pro-choice person truly thinks that a baby just one week from delivery is a human being with full human rights, then a march against late term abortion is entirely appropriate.

Today if a vegan truly thinks that an animal is a sentient being with a full set rights, then a march against killing and eating such animals is entirely appropriate.

I have managed to catch the gay pride parade in Paris twice (talk about loud but lots of fun costumes) and last year my husband and I came across a protest by Normandy farmers about some airport development project. Marching the streets of Blvd. Saint-Germain and around the Luxembourg Gardens appears to be a popular Saturday activity.

Hope you're enjoying Paris, I envy you. I haven't been there in years and I love it there. Enjoy the pate and the nice people. It's such a horrible myth that Parisians are rude. I've never been there without having someone buy me a beer simply for being American and I've never left there without having more friends than I had when I arrived.

I have also found the Parisians to be friendly. What they are not is effusive to strangers which is considered normal friendliness in much of the U.S. but not in Europe (at least, the parts I've seen). Complaints about New Yorkers stem from the same misconception: gruffness is not the same as rudeness.

I speak a little French and that helps. I like that if I start in French the locals will continue in that language. It helps get practice in. A colleague spent a year in Amsterdam and said he didn't learn any Dutch because everyone would switch to English as soon as they heard him speak.

A, that is entirely true about Dutch. I used to live in Flanders and so many Dutch/Flemish speakers speak English that as soon as they hear your accent, that conversation is happening in English. It's nearly impossible to practice Dutch, but I think they like the effort anyway. Just as well, I suck at foreign languages anyway. Even though I have many French relatives, I can't seem to pick it up. I know only enough to avoid getting hard boiled eggs on the sandwich that I order. Jesus, I hate that. Eggs, on a sandwich? There is a phrase worth learning in my book!

So... she likes fur and chopped liver.

Yep, she's Jewish.

I get really annoyed at vegetarians/vegans that get all self-righteous. What they choose to do is their business, but they have no right to impose themeselves on the rest of the world.

I was at a Christmas dinner a few days ago. Next to me, a vegetarian woman. She just couldn't stand the thought that some dish she might be served might contain some molecule of meat, so she told the restaurant that she was allergic. I asked her: did she have any flipping idea what that meant for the kitchen?

One chef I know of tells the story of when he - quite literally - had to be restrained from attacking a guest. The guest arrived as part of a group, and reported a dairy allergy. The first course was seafood, fried in butter. The portion for this guest was thrown away, pans freshly scrubbed, a new portion fried in olive oil. Throughout the rest of the meal, this guest's portions were prepared separately, to ensure no possible contamination - life threatening allergies are no joke!

At the end of the meal, the guest wanted to stay and talk with his colleagues over drinks, and wanted something to nibble on, so he ordered...a cheese platter. There was no allergy. He just thought he would get a healthier meal if he didn't get any butter...

Too many vegetarians (and especially vegans) take themselves far to damned seriously...

My sister was a vegan for a while. I don't know, for sure, why she finally changed back. I think she finally realized she wasn't healthy.

The important question: did Gregg get any of the pate' this time? ;-)

Let them eat cake!

Offtopic confrontation #1.

Offtopic confrontation #2, and I'm deeply embarrassed for watching that all the way through.

I am all for humane raising and treatment of animals for food. I think they should be killed as quickly as possible, too. Decapitation would probably be best. But I will never stop eating meat. It tastes too damn good and I need the iron anyway.

DH found the ranch we will buy if he wins the powerball on Wed :) Our dream is to raise our own animals for food. Homegrown bacon-YUM!

Please keep these posts coming! It is very interesting to see glimpses of Paris from a non-tourist, yet non-local, viewpoint.

And I had a good laugh at your comment about that man and his dog. Yes, they do share a profile.

I hope you guys are having a great time and that the weather is fairly agreeable for late November. Where are you staying...which arrondissement?

One of my favorite trips to Paris was over Thanksgiving weekend. Back in 1994, Northwest Airlines had a fantastic promotion: $199 round-trip (yes, round-trip and $199 is not a typo) from Seattle to Paris so my then-girlfriend and I decided to go for only four days. I found a great hotel on rue Jacob in the 6th: the Hotel des Deux Continents. We had a top-floor room with a small balcony looking north. I loved staying in that neighborhood, with the wonderful Place Furstenburg only a few blocks away, and close to the Rue de Buci street market. On the day we left, we passed by Allen Ginsberg near the Saint-Germain-des-Prés church.

I love how dog-friendly Paris is, although I do wish Parisians would pick up the merde de chien. Perhaps they've become better at doing that since I was last there.

I'm sorry to say I never learned a second language except for ASL. I had a deaf co-worker, and so I took classes so that we could communicate more effectively.

I'm going to learn Japanese now, tho. I think it's a beautiful, fascinating language that will perhaps open some doors for me.

As for the Vegans, I wish they would just adopt a "To each his own" attitude. If they want to eat plants, well then, more power to them. If they want to wear plastic crap shoes that fall apart in 3 months, I say go for it, cupcake.

I have a pair of black leather boots that I bought in college that I still wear, some saddle soap and leather conditioner, a new sole once ever couple of years, and they look like new. You won't get that kind of quality out of a man-made material.

P.S. Vegan is still just the Old Indian word for Lousy Hunter :P

Our dream is to raise our own animals for food. Homegrown bacon-YUM!

If you do make sure its quite a ways away from the house cause that smell carrys like you wouldnt belive.

Also bury the ends of the fence about a foot down in cement, pigs can dig. Also pigs dont sweat so the need a wallow but you want enough room to shift where the wallow lies over time, plus enough room toleave an area permenalty dry incase you ever want to try breeding em instead of just buying them

But, I will say - nothing, NOTHING I have ever eaten in all my life tasted as good as meat off a hog I slaughtered and drained on my property and threw cuts of on the grill within an hour of its death

a_random_guy, glad you shared this anecdote. People of various dietary stripes, following various trends, will lie and say they have food allergies to ensure that they get their way. I have known friends to do it to save calories or because they don't like horseradish or whatever. Some people suspect an intolerance and call it an allergy. This is a horrible thing to do to a chef.

It also makes the world less safe for people with real food allergies (the ones whose windpipes will close), who may already have a hard time being taken seriously.

I read (and I wish it was earlier) that Americans come across as rude by not speaking with (i.e. greeting) shopkeepers when they enter a shop in France. Cultural norms can create misunderstandings. At least I couldn't have annoyed too many locals, I only spent one day in Strassbourg, which my daughter's French friend says is only nominally part of France. She brought some pate to a going away lunch. It was something I never tried before, expected to dislike, and found delicious.

It isn't Paris if someone isn't protesting something.

Vegans are kinda stringy, but not bad if you braise them for a day or two.

Vegans are kinda stringy, but not bad if you braise them for a day or two.Nolo Contendere at November 26, 2012 3:06 PM

Isn't that brine them in a salt/sugar mix. That's how I do all my turkeys. :-)

I read (and I wish it was earlier) that Americans come across as rude by not speaking with (i.e. greeting) shopkeepers when they enter a shop in France. Cultural norms can create misunderstandings.

Very true about the differences in culture, Mark. Of course, people going to another country can (and, in my opinion, should) attempt to learn about customs in that country in order to limit those misunderstandings.

One of my pet peeves is hearing fellow Americans ask "Do you speak English?" in English. I feel that the least someone can do is learn that phrase in the language of the country they're visiting. Even if that's the only phrase they learn, it shows people that they made some effort.

You can speak the lousiest French in the world and do okay if you walk into a shop and say "Bonjour, Madame" to the woman working there (or "Monsieur").

Oui! That's always been my experience. My encounters with French shopkeepers have, with only a couple exceptions, been pleasant. And I've always said those greetings (and have also said goodbyes when departing.) I love the way the French say "Bonjour", with that lilt in their voice.

The rude people I've encountered on my trips to France have almost always been people in high-volume tourist/customer postions, such as ticket sellers at train stations. I've had nothing but good experiences when I've asked people for directions or other assistance.