The oddest thing...

...over the past couple years was as my dietary choices have bounced around from vegetarian to omnivore to pesco-ovo-lacto vegetarian, and never-not-once trying to convince anyone else of how they should be eating, the oddest thing was just the sheer ration of shit that people [and surprisingly, family above all others] felt the need to give.

As if, by the sheer distinction of making your own, perhaps different choices about stuff, they felt as if it were some sort of personal attack on them.

Weird.

Ezra Klein: In Defense of Tofu:

"And yet, I get no end of flack for the tofu on my plate. You'd think I were cutting into a heaping pile of fly-infested cow shit for all the raised eyebrows and snide asides I get. A few things:

...What's up with the gender politics over dinner? I don't get my masculinity from my plate, I get it by driving my enemies before me, and hearing the lamentations of their women. Do girls get a lot of shit for eating vegetarian? Or is it just us Y chromosomes who people look at like we're slapping on lilac aftershave?

• I'm not judging you. If you think I am, you probably just feel bad about eating meat, and should better reconcile yourself to your culinary choices. The percentage of items on my plate that survived through photosynthesis really has no bearing on the morality of steak. "

Step away from the tofu burger at Pandagon:

"I've nearly had to scream at relatives before who kept pushing and pushing the lard-laden gravy on me at Thanksgiving, which is a habit that only started up in response to deciding not to eat of the four-legged mooing members of the planet. I never ate gravy before, because I don't like it. But now my habits are taken as a de facto criticism of anyone who doesn't share them."