End Game

It has been said, "The journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step", I would just like to add that if the first step is in the wrong direction then the trip is now 1,000 miles + one step.

Vegetarian to Vegan to...?

Raised a Catholic, my idea of vegetarian was a person who ate no meat. Fish did not count as meat. I know to this day, vegetarians who enjoy all manner of seafood.

Next on the continuum are vegetarians who eat no animals of any kind, so basically the same as above except minus the seafood.

At the end of the spectrum are vegans. If I understand it right, they not only do not eat animals, but also disdain any animal products such as dairy and honey.

So what is the next "logical" step? How about food that is made from raw elements? Carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and amino acids can all be made using pure chemical methods. I'm sure that someday chemivarians will look upon plant murderers as utterly barbaric.

I will remain a meat-eating throwback.

Meanwhile, next door at the bumper-boats...

I'm the guy in the blue shirt

Surenna gives Rudy the 5th degree

The Rudy really ought to think about brushing-up on rudy-lore when a 12 year old successfully messes with you.

Update: There are actual reindeer at Santa's Village, but they were not talking.

I don't know why I always do this...

I bring reading material with me when we go on vacation and I did this time too. Did I read any of it? No. Did I read? Yes. I always find a book where we are staying and latch onto it. The problem is that I have to read it fast because I don't want to steal the book but I do want to see how it ends. And no, I don't want to have to buy a copy just to read the last three chapters. The library? Yeah, by the time I get around to that I will have forgotten what the book was about.

This trip I found a copy of Shop Girl, by Steve Martin. I had seen the movie, though I remember only the barest outline of what it is about. The nice thing about the book was that it was slim and so it would not be too taxing to get through.

I liked it. Steve Martin's voice comes through--one can almost hear him narrating the story. There were flaws: He used the term "stacking" for both drinks and pillows, just a few sentences apart. The guy is a famous actor and writer of comedy, so the poor editor probably felt like it was on purpose or something. The other nit-picky issue I had was with geography. He has the girl (Mirabelle I think) flying from L.A. to some little town in Vermont and she flies from L.A. to J.F.K., then to Montpelier VT on a commuter airline and then takes a bus 150 miles to her home town. There is an international airport in Burlington, VT which can handle jets and gets regular service from J.F.K. and Burlington is only about 40 miles from Montpelier. Vermont is a small state, both Montpelier and Burlington are centrally located, so there are two things that stem from this: There is hardly any place (possibly none) that are 150 miles from either city and still in Vermont. Any place that is around that far from Montpelier would also be roughly the same distance from Burlington.

Update: I did some mapping and there is a place in Vermont more than 150 miles from Burlington: Burlington is on the Western border of the state and is about 3/4 of the way up from the Southern border. Brattleboro is 152 miles away in the South East corner of the state and one would pass through Montpelier on the way. But; if you were going to that part of the state, Manchester New Hampshire, Albany NY and Hartford CT are all closer and have major airports. So there.