Sunday, July 19, 2009

Attention Attention! For those of you who haven't heard the monumental news yet: Gus has joined the dark side...carnivorism. Alas, after eight years of veggie protein links (a.k.a. "hotdogs"), tofurky, and boca burgers, Gus tasted a former living animal in the form of a barbeque-slathered chicken wing dipped in blue cheese. (Actually, I'm not so sure he actually tasted the meat, but in the very least he experienced the texture.)

Why did he do it? Well, why does Gus do anything? His affair with vegetarianism started as a self-imposed challenge to see simply whether he could do it. After finding it easy to abstain from meat, poultry, and seafood for a couple of weeks, Gus chose to stick with it for the next eight years despite constant derision and mockery by friends and family.

Is this what led to his final breakdown, the lack of a "support group," as he once described it to me, which is apparently a strong factor as to whether or not vegetarians stay the course. Well, that may have had something to do with it. (But just for the record, I've become quite adept at [willingly] incorporating soy meat into our meals...I make a mean veggieblt.)

No, what it really comes down to is the chicken wing. He just wanted one. And though food manufacturers do incredible things now days with soy and vegetables to mimic the real thing, nothing really comes close to an authentic chicken wing.

So what does this mean for us? Well, his color has improved.

Before:
After:







Just kidding! No, nothing as drastic as this news may suggest. Since the infamous date, Gus's non-vegetarian inventory-to-date consists of 1 bite of a turkey sandwich, 3 scoops crab dip. We'll still be sticking with the soy stuff for the most part--there are so many compelling reasons to abstain from meat, after all. But it's nice to know that we can indulge in a chicken wing once every blue moon.

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