Meatless March

A great deal has happened since I last posted, over a month ago. There was Halloween, for example: And I almost can't express my relief and elation that my small backup dancer finally became eligible for her first COVID vaccine dose, which she took like a champ: And I had to have a tooth extracted, which fortunately does not come with a photo. And I got a new job at CivicStory , and the focus of the job is promoting what individual citizens can do to promote environmental sustainability. Perhaps this sounds familiar, because--bless your cotton socks--you've been reading my exhortations on this topic in 188 blog posts since February 2019. Now, I am honored and thrilled to be able to inspire support for the environment on a larger scale (and for a paycheck!). Fear not, I'll still be here to share encouragement about eating less meat and dairy for environmental reasons. Apparently it's needed more than ever, because 46 percent of respondents in a recent poll , when asked t...

Happy Vegan Vednesday! I gave " Biscuit-Topped Chickpea Pot Pie " (Nora Cooks) a whirl, and I probably won't be whirling that one again. It wasn't bad; we just found it uncompelling.  But don't be discouraged: there are lots of appealing dishes without meat and dairy, and choosing them is a way to fight climate change. Climate change is caused by "greenhouse gases" that trap heat around the earth. Food systems account for an estimated 34% of all greenhouse gas emissions , according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization earlier this year, and FAO had previously estimated that 14.5% of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions come from the livestock sector . Methane machine A diet focused more on plants than animal products means fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Me observing Vegan Vednesday is, admittedly, a drop in the bucket. But me talking YOU into observing Vegan Vednesday is two drops in the bucket, so let's go from there. Search ...

Last week, Apple repaired my computer, after its left shift key stopped working. Apple did this repair for free. I want to contrast Apple with Breville, which offered to repair my stupid busted $240 food processor for $149, and they would then warranty it for six measly months. No thank you, I told them, I will put my $149 towards a new food processor, and it won't be a Breville. I find it environmentally irresponsible that Breville designed a food processor that didn't survive more than 2.5 years of light use, and then they offered a substantial financial disincentive to repair rather than replace it. I happily pay to repair things all the time, but $149 is excessive. So don't buy a Breville food processor, but I shared this cautionary tale because I also want you to consider that I was without my computer for the better part of a week. While I waited for it to return, I came up with A LOT TO SAY here, all of it pithy, I assure you, on topics ranging from Mocktoberfest to...

Home-grown vegetables are precious gifts . When a friend supplied me with kale this week, I was pleased to be able to substitute it for the spinach in a recipe for " Creamy Spinach and Artichoke Pasta " (The Colorful Kitchen) on Vegan Vednesday. I used this whole can of artichokes (drained), and about 10 ounces of dried pasta. This isn't a "wow" dish, but it is simple to make, and it is good. Yes, grated cheese would make it better, because cheese is delicious. But  The Guardian  reminds us that  animal agriculture accounts for 14.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions . Once a week, at least, we can choose to set aside animal products for the sake of the planet, and it's not a hardship when you have solid recipes like this one at your fingertips.  Speaking of the planet, a lot of my environmental reading lately has focused on consumerism. I was raised on materialism; maybe you were, too. We're all targets of marketing. I grew up wanting to own stuff...

My mom lives in England, a country that persisted until a month ago in requiring even fully vaccinated people to quarantine for 10 days upon arrival. When they finally lifted that requirement in August, I booked a flight for the first time since the Before Times, and this photo shows me me on Wednesday at 6:58pm, double-masked and full of excitement for the plane to take off from Newark Airport.  Well, the plane didn't take off. We had seen Tropical Depression Ida on the radar, heading slowly toward us after it hit Louisiana as a hurricane, days prior. Lightning started, we sat there on the plane for a while, then we were deplaned. The airport was mobbed with stranded passengers. In my mind, they all had COVID. The airport ceiling sprang leaks everywhere, and its ground floor flooded. Every so often, the intercom repeated the same prerecorded message that started with "Hello, and welcome to the friendly skies!", which made me want to barrel up and down the concourse, scre...

Touring the garden of a friend not long ago, I received this priceless gift: a whopping four-pound  zucchini. Go ahead and whistle; it was a beauty. It wasn't much different in shape and size than my swaddled newborn backup dancer, nine years ago. My instinct was to put the zucchini to my shoulder and try to burp it. I swung into action: I must not waste this precious green squash! I must find ways to consume four pounds of zucchini before it went bad! In a frenzy, I dove into recipes, and we feasted on zucchini for days. You can find all the details below. But first, you may have heard that a major and seriously damning report on climate change was issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on August 9. Then again, you may NOT have heard about it , because a lot of us were so alarmed by what we read about the scientists' findings--even (or perhaps especially) if we only read the headlines --that we set it aside. It is hard to digest horror on that scale. ...

More and more frequently, parts of the world are on fire or underwater or otherwise plagued by climate-change-intensifed bad weather. It is literally devastating. But even if you're just watching it on TV and counting your lucky stars that you're not in an evacuation zone, climate change may still have immediate hazards in store for you. Today's example? "Climate change is making poison ivy stronger and itchier," according to Grist.  Read my description of suffering from poison ivy in 2015, and try to tell me that's no big deal: "I went from looking like a smallpox victim to getting an infection, then antibiotics and steroids, then a 'systemic reaction' of random rashes all over my body, so antihistamines and MORE steroids, and a very successful stint on a MLB team, then another exposure to poison ivy, because I'm just that stupid, then more steroids, and now I just have scars all over my arms and legs." We're enabling all kinds of ho...

Despite the many infuriating things about the Olympics ( sexist uniform rules , flawed drug policies, NBC's ridiculously selective coverage and often inane commentary, the potential to exacerbate the COVID-19 pandemic), I popped out of bed yesterday morning and hurried to turn on the live broadcast of the opening ceremony. I can't help myself. I love the good parts of the Games: athleticism, high stakes, sportsmanship, team spirit. This has been true since I was a kid, when I cheered for the likes of Mary Decker, Greg Louganis, Carl Lewis, Katarina Witt, Mary Lou Retton, and, yes,  Eddie the Eagle .  I started running when I was very small, but let's just say most of my ribbons were for participation I remember feeling indignant when I learned that the Soviet Union was boycotting the 1984 Olympic Games, and then sheepish when told that the United States had done the same thing four years earlier. Ever since then, I have felt bad for the athletes who missed those Games, and ...