Ham sammich story + unrelated life updates

[sabotabby]

The weirdest thing for a Jewish vegetarian to crave is a ham sandwich. I don't think I've ever even eaten a real ham sandwich. But anyway, I was going out to mail something to rohmie and pick up milk and coffee, and I asked captainmushroom if he needed anything from the grocery store.

"Bread," he said. Which, for some reason, induced a ham sandwich craving in me.

(Not, I should add, a craving for something made from an actual pig. But I used to make these awesome sandwiches with Yves Veggie Ham and San Francisco sourdough bread.)

So I indulged, and I made myself a kosher, vegetarian ham sandwich with Future Bakery bread, honey mustard, Italian salad dressing, sliced tomatoes, and jalapeños. With spicy olives on the side. It was awesome and I think I'll have another one for lunch.

---

I can't believe Ward Churchill is speaking Friday afternoon while I'll be in class. The nerve. Maybe he'll stick around that night and I can go for a beer with him. One of my goals in life is to go for a beer with Ward Churchill, which I don't think is unreasonable.

---

Toronto people: If you are around tomorrow night, you have to come see "A Little Bit of So Much Truth," with a Q&A by director Jill Freidberg (the one who made "This Is What Democracy Looks Like). It will be fabulous, it will be free, and if you donate any money, it will go directly to the people of Oaxaca.

Here's the info;

Thursday January 31st 2008
Time: 7PM to 9:30PM
Location: The Koffler Institute, 569 Spadina Ave - Room 108
(the east side of Spadina, between College and Harbord, north of Russell)

Hosted, of course, by the OMG-why-did-I-take-on-another-political-commitment? group that I joined recently. Because I don't have enough on my plate so I have to go join new groups. I'm like that.

---

Hmm, what else? Life drawing with my step-sisters tonight, if we can figure out where the hell the place is. It's been about a decade since I've done any life drawing, so I'll post the embarrassing results here and you can all point and laugh.

Comments

[apperception.livejournal.com]

Life drawing? Is that where you draw dick?

[sabotabby]

Yes, yes it is!

Jackson Pollock couldn't draw dick.

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

Ironic because, with the right food coloring ingested, he could paint with his.

[sabotabby]

...


hee.

[talibah-nazahah.livejournal.com]

i used to love roastbeef sandwiches when i was little... with ketchup! everything always had ketchup... and ham too... mmmm... damn you! making me think about meat!

[sabotabby]

That's why Yves exists. (And King's Cafe, which is only in Toronto, but it's even better than Yves.)

I'm weird about ketchup. I don't like it on anything except fries and onion rings, and then I put on a disgusting amount.

[zingerella.livejournal.com]

I think there's a King's Café in Montreal, too.

[talibah-nazahah.livejournal.com]

you dont like ketchup!?!?! what kind of jew are you???

[sabotabby]

The sort with bizarre ham sandwich cravings.

[talibah-nazahah.livejournal.com]

yea... nuff said :)

[jhfurnish.livejournal.com]

It is the anarchist Wobbly heart deep inside you!

You wish to commit blasphemies and sacrilege!

DO IT!!! DO IT, WOMAN!!!!!

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

[sabotabby]

I don't think I could eat an actual pig unless it was a choice between that or committing some sort of gross cultural offense. But I'd eat mock human if it was vegetarian.

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

Bad Meat!

[mistersmearcase.livejournal.com]

I just had fake duck and fake chicken. It was...not that good. It was at this place Zen Palate that is the bad kind of vegetarian restaurant, but then during my years of vegetarianism I generally found (outside of some Chinese veg places that made interesting fake meat) the best option was usually going to non-veg restaurants and ordering veg things. Vegetarian restaurants are often made of vegetarian fail.

[mistersmearcase.livejournal.com]

Which I guess would be called fayl or something since changing one letter has become semantically codified to mean "not made of any of your friends." Hm although I guess usually they try to make it some letter that connotes no-ness. Like Nayonaise. I'm kind of on crack today, sorry. Mock human, ha! I just read that.

[sabotabby]

Almost every* non-East Asian or non-South Asian vegetarian restaurant I've been to has been made of fail. For some reason, they tend to confuse "vegetarian" with "lots of disposable income and no tastebuds." Seriously, I like some spice in my foodz. And vegetarian food should not be expensive, for fuck's sake.

* I can think of a few exceptions; one is in Chicago.

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

I've encountered exceptions in Pittsburgh and in a suburb of Washington DC, but alas the best near-DC counterexample is only open for lunch, not dinner, and is remarkably hard to find (impossible to accidentally stumble upon). There's some great, cheap, vegetarian food in Baltimore, but I can't recall whether the places I'm thinking of are specifically vegetarian restaurants or omnivore establishments that happen to have more vegetarian options or not on their menus.

There's at least one almost-counterexample withing DC proper, but it fails on the fiscal aspect even though it passes the yumminess test.

I am, of course, ignoring the great many fine vegetarian Indian restaurants, all over the price scale, because you're already excepting regional cuisines ...

[5-miles.livejournal.com]

Have you seen Ward speak before?
He used to come to Winnipeg quite a lot before his wife died (her family was from the area) so I have seen him a few times. I didn't always agree with everything he said and I was pretty uncomfortable with how he would yell at anyone who asked him a question, but it was always interesting and he always said a lot of things that really made me think.

[sabotabby]

I've seen Ward speak. He's gotten more intolerant over the years. He says enough that other people are afraid to say that I tend to find his talks worthwhile.

[5-miles.livejournal.com]

It's been a couple of years since I have seen him. I think it's been about ten years since I first saw him. He was quite intolerant back then, it's hard to imagine him being more intolerant.

[culpster.livejournal.com]

a) A friend of mine rode in a car with Churchill from Toronto to Ottawa in late 2001, after his OISE appearance, debating the little Eichmanns thing all the way.

And I wonder if anyone has a tape of that OISE gig somewhere, because the way I remember it was he started by saying, "Shout out to the 9-11 pilots!" causing everyone to go whoooo! He may have even pumped his fist.

This has colored my reaction to everything that's gone down since; when I weigh this one unscripted exclamation against the public record, I think he's a dissembling asshole. But I'm saying that quietly until I hear the tape.

b) I miss ham sandwiches, sure. The gristly shiny Schneider's slices above all, with yellow mustard, on Dempster's white. Yves is nothing like it, although it sure beats their roast beef (Tofurky is winning the meat sweeps in my kitchen these days in all its manifestations)

In Edmonton of all places I had curry mutton made from mushroom stem and I fell in love! I must have had bad luck with King's, every time I go there my dish of choice is festooned with 'frozen mixed vegetables'.

[culpster.livejournal.com]

Oh and regarding 'fayl' - that reminds me that vegetarians are dumb-ass marketers. Vegan cheese is called 'scheese' or 'chreese' (the package for the latter says 'we call it that because it sounds like trees and we loooove trees') - you can't even say it.

And then there's Quorn, pronounced Corn. Another stupid name, but that's not all. Does everyone know the legend of the Quorn chicken nuggets? Everyone was like, how do they make these vegetarian nuggets taste so much like chicken? A: they are made from fungus...GROWN ON THE CORPSES OF DEAD CHICKENS!

I think Linda McCartney got in trouble for something similar, her veg line was basically meat with 85% cheap filler. Oh well - not her fault, she's just the face on the package right?

And THAT reminds me about Tom's of Maine...let's see if I can find that Star article...ah yes.

* * * * *

In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle last fall, Tom and Kate Chappell were asked why Colgate, which took over Tom's of Maine in 2006, is not mentioned on Tom's product labels. (The company, which started out with a phosphate-free liquid laundry detergent called Clearlake, is the largest purveyor of natural toothpaste in the U.S.)

"They're two different customers," was Tom Chappell's reply. "I don't see why our customer would be interested in seeing a Colgate reference."

"Won't some customers feel deceived?" asked reporter Ilana DeBare.

"It's honest, in that it's public knowledge that the Chappell family is in business with Colgate as a partnership, and the charter is for the Chappells and the leadership to carry on with the original vision and values. So there's no change."

http://www.thestar.com/article/295824

* * * * *

Just thought I'd share that. Slow day at work!!

[sabotabby]

Ugh. I still use Tom's of Maine, because, hey, I like it, but I'm creeped out that they're owned by Colgate.

There are some dishes at King's that fail, particularly since they radically cut their menu. But there are a lot that are good, and the fake meat section in the back is wonderful.

Without knowing the context, I hope Ward was making a joke in poor taste.

[culpster.livejournal.com]

I was going to send this Tom guy a nasty letter, but then I was like, wait - I use Colgate! So I think I'll choose my battles on this one ;)

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

But anyway, I was going out to mail something to rohmie

That comic was a gift - you don't have to return it.

One of my goals in life is to go for a beer with Ward Churchill, which I don't think is unreasonable.

You should email him.

It's been about a decade since I've done any life drawing, so I'll post the embarrassing results here and you can all point and laugh.

You should never point and laugh in a life drawing class.

[sabotabby]

That comic was a gift - you don't have to return it.

What I mailed you is not a comic. You'll have to live in suspense, muhahahaha.

You should email him.

I might go to a luncheon with him on that Friday, depending on whether I have class. For some reason, in my head, my second class that day is cancelled, and if I explained to my other instructor that I had to leave 10 minutes early to meet with Ward Churchill, I think he'd understand.

You should never point and laugh in a life drawing class.

You really, really shouldn't.

[lovableatheist.livejournal.com]

Ward Churchill spoke here a few months ago. I was really excited, but his talk wasn't very exciting.

Derrick Jensen is speaking here tonight. I'm going but I'm not very excited about it. Someone told me that he wrote a book about being able to talk to coyotes. I don't know if that's true or not, but it doesn't sounds very, um, real to me. The mysticism that some anarchists, for one reason or another, seem to be attracted to just doesn't make sense to me.

[sabotabby]

I'm willing to entertain Jensen insofar as many of his critiques of civilization aren't entirely off-base. It's the end-goal that I find disturbing. I've wanted to attend one of his talks just to ask him what should happen to the approximately 6 million extraneous people that a hunter-gatherer planet could not sustain.