Animal Writings

170,000,000^*

That's the number of birds killed so far in efforts to contain the bird flu virus.

Throughout the world, we have created near-perfect breeding grounds for rogue viruses and novel strains of bacteria: tens of thousands of genetically identical chickens, crowded into one room, breathing in each others' excrement, their feathers sometimes covered in it (and not cleaned off since their beaks have been seared off), their immune systems severely compromised from a complete lack of exercise and denial of the most innate physical and social behaviors. The birds suffer while the pathogens thrive.

Animal People reports that cases of Avian Flu are breaking out not along migratory routes, but along trade routes, particularly those in which cockfighting and exotic birds are sold. This strongly suggests that it is not wild birds but human activities that are the real vectors for the disease.

A recent Vegan Freaks blog post quotes Mike Davis, author of The Monster at Our Door—The Global Threat of Avian Flu, who warns that concentrated third-world urban poverty may hasten viruses' opportunities to mutate and infiltrate human populations.

The blog entry also notes that Newsweek tells readers who may be worried about the bird flu not to stop eating chicken. In other words, Newsweek's advice is to keep tempting fate. Heavens, we can't impinge on our right to consume whatever we want, whenever we want to—cheaply. When the disaster of our own making strikes—when the global disease levees break—no doubt Newsweek will have feature stories and special editions on our heroic efforts to help bird flu victims.

Meanwhile, in live animal markets in Asia and in prison-like chicken sheds across the U.S., pathogens, teeming in an environment far more ideal than that which they would find in nature, are multiplying, morphing, and becoming more robust...

So the factory-farm dairy industry won't spend a miniscule amount of money to put a suffering cow out of her misery— even when they intentionally cause the suffering by overtaxing the cow's body, and even when they profit from it. But they'll spend millions on "Happy Cow" commercials that falsely show a life of luxury and comfort for dairy farm cows. Make you mad? A little? Don't buy their products. That is the only effective way to spare animals from needless suffering. Alternative products abound.

Cow's milk has opiate-like compounds that help strengthen the bond between mother cow and baby calf, and also provide extra incentive for the calf to nurse. (When cows are taken away from their mothers, as they always are on dairy farms, this mild addiction to their mother's milk probably makes their already-unbearable agony even worse.)

Cheese is basically concentrated milk product, and thus has a higher concentration of these compounds. The main culprit is casein, a protein found in all dairy foods. It converts to a morphine-like substance. When people are given drugs that block the desire for morphine, they lose their taste for cheese, as well.

Humans have varying degrees of addiction to this substance; there is probably a genetic basis for the variation. Some people have a strong addiction. This may be why pizza is often the last food to go when transitioning to veganism. Quitting may actually bring on withdrawal symptoms. The good news is that once you give up dairy, the cravings go away rather quickly.

I'm not saying that cheese tastes terrible, but if you eat cheese, part of what you may be attributing to flavor may actually be your brain's physical need for a fix. Here's an incentive to quit: when you break the habit, you'll spare animals—mothers and babies—from senseless suffering. Become addicted to kindness.

---

Related Link:

Vegan Freaks Podcast 13. (After discussing the addictiveness of cheese and the horror of a Canadian egg farm, the death metal breakout weirdly fits in. Parental advisory: some profanity.)

Soymilk is better than it used to be. If you tried it ten or even five years ago and didn't like it, give it another try. These days, you can buy organic, light, calcium-fortified, sweetened or unsweetened, and vanilla soymilk, and that's just for starters. Compare different brands; flavor can vary widely. Also keep in mind rice milk, which tends to have a little sweeter taste; some people prefer this.

In addition to using soymilk on your cereal and in smoothies, you can buy various varieties of soy creamer for coffee. Soymilk also works well in lattes.

I'm not the biggest fan of soy ice cream, but I think it's definitely improved in the last few years, also, and the number of brands and flavors keeps growing. Recently I tried Soy Delicious' "Cookies N Cream" flavor, and it really was delicious — smooth, rich, and creamy. Their "Chocolate Obsessions" is quite good, too.

Tofutti Cuties are worthy substitutes for ice cream sandwiches. Non-vegans tend to like them as much as vegans.

Maybe I'm just getting used to the taste of soy ice cream, or this field is making great strides; in either case, a year after making the switch I suspect you'll never think about ice cream again. There are too many delicious alternatives.

It's relatively easy to find dairy-free frozen waffles, and they taste as good as any. You can use soymilk, rice milk, or water in pancakes and they come out great.

In my area (suburban DC), Papa John's Pizza makes a very decent no-cheese pizza. (Major shout-out to Papa John's). Ask for no cheese and extra sauce, and order lots of good veggie toppings. It's not exactly like cheese pizza, but it's good, and you can eat more slices, since it's not quite as filling (and not nearly as fattening).

Look for dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate (added benefit: dark chocolate has antioxidant properties not found in milk chocolate). Buy bread products that don't have milk or whey in the ingredients.

Calfskin gloves, calfskin shoes — ever wonder where those come from? They may come from killed veal calves. Yes, when you buy these products, you're supporting the veal industry. Don't think of leather as "using" the animal more efficiently. In this case, you're making cruel practices more profitable.

There are plenty more things you can do to cut dairy out of your diet, especially if you are vigilant about reading food labels. But if you can just do these few steps, you'll have made a huge impact; you'll save many animals, including would-be veal calves, from suffering. Plus there's a multiplier effect: your friends will inquire about your dietary changes, and you'll educate them and encourage them. Then they'll save animals and tell others, and the cycle will continue.

Ex-rancher-turned-vegan Howard Lyman said in a speech a few years ago that when he's driving out in the country and he comes across some cows grazing, sometimes he pulls over, gets out of the car, and says "Moo! How ya doin'? I'm not killing you or hurting you any more." You might find soon yourself doing the same thing.

(Emphasis mine.)

Organic or conventional, stealing an infant away from his mother is cruel.

Next: Veal farms, and more on the veal-dairy connection.

(Coming up: more on dairy farm cruelty, tips on how to kick the dairy habit, and why you may be physically addicted to dairy products.)

You want bacon, sausage, or ham with those hash browns? Please, try the veggie alternatives. They're in the frozen section (and sometimes also in the refrigerated section near the soymilk) of most supermarkets. They're surprisingly good and getting better. There are several competing brands in this rapidly growing market; the vegan varieties are the most cruelty-free, but all of them are a huge step in the right direction. Also scroll down to see the special AnimalWritings.com "can't-lose" charity offer on GardenBurger Riblets —a humane and delicious alternative to spare ribs.

This Yom Kippur (belated), atone to the animals that suffered and died because you wanted them on your plate. Chances are, you barely gave any thought to the animals that became your food. It is almost a certainty that they had very short and miserable lives. The vast majority of meat and dairy comes from "factory farm" animals that live in cramped, smelly, uncomfortable quarters. They never exercise, breathe fresh air, or engage in normal social behaviors. Their teeth, testicles, beaks, tails, toes, and horns are severed without painkillers. Babies are pulled from their mothers long before the end of their normal weaning period. Male calves are literally dragged away (since they're not steady on their feet yet) from their mothers when one or two days old, and sentenced to a 20-week Hell in the veal crate. Newborn male chicks produced by breeding hens are ground up or suffocated on their first day of life.

Modern farm animals are bred to be so top-heavy they can barely stand, and their hearts often give out. Artificial lighting and hormones make their already unnatural bodies go into overdrive. Half of all dairy cows are lame by the time they're five years old. Egg-laying hens look and act well on their way to death when they're trucked to the slaughterhouse after one or two years of hard labor.

There are many problems in the world. I don't have to remind you of them. Most we are not responsible for, except in remotely indirect ways. All of us have hurt people in the last year, and are obliged to make reconciliations and pledge to do better. But if you eat meat and dairy, it is a virtual guarantee that — by far — the most suffering you caused this year was to animals, and that, furthermore, it was all preventable. Therefore, you should atone to them. It is most meaningful to atone to victims who suffered and died as a direct result of your willful, voluntary, and discretionary actions.

Do you remember that the Lord commanded that animals be allowed to rest on the Sabbath? None of the animals that ended up on your plate were given rest on that day, or any day, including the days they were born and killed.

You may think, "but they're just standing there. Isn't that rest?"

Factory farm animals have no rest unless they are rescued. The animals stuck in huge sheds and tiny cages experience the unrest of a child held captive in a prison camp. There is not one second of play or relaxation. Even among the youngest, who should be running with bright eyes and blissful exuberance, the mood is morbid and somber. There is no room to do anything and their bodies ache from painful amputations and intensive breeding that works against their natural desires. The air is thick with the stench of feces and the aerosol of urine. There is nothing soft on which to lay down. The birds and pigs have no straw with which to make a bed. Most of the cows have to sleep on mud or dirt.

Rest is not the absence of action. In fact, the animals would like nothing more than to be let out of their cages, out of their crowded, smelly, windowless sheds, to walk into the sun, feel the real Earth beneath their feet, spread their wings, run at top speed with their legs, forage with their beaks, root in the mud with their snouts, and graze on huge expanses of pasture. To use their bodies and senses — however distended and distorted — more in line with how God designed them to be used, "according to their own kind." God gave these mistreated animals the tools and the desires to do all these things; they're denied ultimately because of you. The moment you stop buying meat, eggs, and dairy, the suffering will ease.

It is rather disturbing that Jews, of all people, are not only willfully ignorant of the suffering of their victims, but also devalue that suffering. Jews celebrate with cheese and eggs in blintzes as soon as Yom Kippur ends, oblivious to the fact that a veal calf spent a horrific, motherless life in chains so that the mother cow would produce un-Godly amounts of milk. The celebrants don't care that the hens who produced the eggs lived in a space less than the size of a record album cover; that their feet became overgrown and their joints ached from constantly standing on wire grating; that their innate desire to build a nest was stifled; that they suffered from excruciating "prolapses" in which the uterus sticks to the genetically-enlarged egg and comes out with it.

"But they're just chickens," you might say. That's almost the same thing that enemies of the Jews said about Jews. "They're inferior, and their suffering should not be prevented, regretted, or taken seriously." No matter how many differences exist between chickens and humans, we have one fundamental, profound shared trait: we suffer. We suffer badly. We fear suffering. We desperately try to avoid it, to escape it.

Because animals lack some human outlets, their suffering may even be worse. They cannot use language to fully articulate their plight to the outside world — although their body language and vocalizations are compelling. They probably cannot pray to God. They cannot rationalize their predicament. They cannot devise escape plans. They are just terrified. Many are babies. Some chicks are still peeping when they're on the slaughterhouse line, hanging upside-down, their feet shackled, smelling death all around them. They are only seven weeks old.

There is another important trait that animals share with humans: friendship. Chickens, cows, rabbits, ducks, and other farm animals express empathy and altruism toward others. On countless occasions, eyewitnesses have seen animals let the sick eat first, or have the best sleeping spots. Roosters and hens protect not only their young but their friends from the rain. Close companions may grieve deeply when their partner dies or is taken away. Many of us have seen this with our pets. Farm animals are no different.

Why do we treat these living souls so horribly? Why do we put their suffering out of our minds, and relish its products? Is everyone so caught up in their own troubles — or their own indulgences — that we're blind to the profound and widespread suffering that we cause?

Perhaps it is the very fact that the misery of farm animals is the result of our actions that we avoid thinking about it, or make excuses for it. Jews are famous for shouldering guilt, but acknowledging that you are complicit in torture is too much to bear. The mind fights it; the ego refuses to admit it. All our formidable defense mechanisms are mobilized; our cleverness at rationalization is put into effect, to shelter us from the most uncomfortable, incriminating realities.

And yet, once we have an inkling of the intense misery of modern food animals — and knowledge of alternatives — we never truly convince ourselves that it is acceptable to make animals suffer and die because we like the taste of their cooked flesh. No matter how clever we are, no matter how many layers of defense mechanisms are in place, we know without a doubt in our hearts that preventable cruelty is wrong. We know that causing the weak and powerful to suffer on behalf of the strong and privileged is detestable. It goes against everything we were taught. It flagrantly disobeys the wish of God that we be merciful and humble. It clearly violates the Golden Rule. Were we the terrified calf or chick, we would want nothing so desperately as to have a normal life. We would beg for mercy. Were powerful aliens to land here — aliens that saw us as we see chickens — we would never consent to them enslaving and slaughtering us because we were considered a delicacy, or an essential ingredient in a religious ritual. The thought would sicken us and disgust us. It could never be justified.

And yet we do it. Every day, with nary a thought. How different it is to be the victimizer who shares in the spoils instead of the victim.

We can live without eggs. It's easy. I've done it for years. I used to eat challah, kugel, and honeycake (although there are egg-free recipes for all those dishes now). I used to cook omelets and matzoh brie and deviled eggs. My conscience compelled me to stop. I didn't wither away. I found ten other foods to take their place. Once I got past the angst of giving them up, it was barely a blip. I'm a better person for it. I'm no longer sentencing hens to a lifetime of misery just so I can have egg noodles during the High Holy Days or macaroons at Passover. There's no way that tickling my taste buds or continuing a food tradition can be considered morally equal to the hen's deep desire to be free of pain and suffering. I can no longer in good conscience keep making brisket or chopped liver or meatballs, or any food that inflicts misery and death on animals just to satisfy tradition or my pleasure.

And that is our crime. It's not like lamenting the fate of Jews in Russia, about which we can do little other than get angry. The solution to animal suffering — suffering that is real and intense and going on this instant and widespread — is literally right in front of us. On our plates. All we have to do is stop supporting cruelty. Changing your diet is trivially easy compared to the hardships endured by food animals.

Have a heart. Atone now and for the rest of your lives to the innocents living in squalid surroundings, barely able to move, suffering physically and mentally for our ingrained habits and indulgences. Your atonement will be felt PROFOUNDLY by the beneficiaries. I assure you. Please — stop torturing them.

Then take a breath. Look around you. Look at the birds in flight. The squirrels in the trees. The tiny vole burrowing near the fence. Visit a farm sanctuary. Say hello to a big cow, with her big brown eyes. Hoist your child on your shoulders. Tell her or him that cows are good parents, too. That they're our friends. That they have cow friends that they hang out with, but also people friends. Just like the little guy or girl on top of your shoulders. "Can you moo like a cow? That's how they communicate."

They also communicate in more subtle ways. When they're grazing as a group, under the shade of a big oak tree, on a summer afternoon, enjoying each others' company, truly resting, at peace, summer after summer, they're saying "thank you." "Thank you, kind humans. Thank you, Jews. Thank you, people of all faiths. Thank you, humanists and Wiccans. Thank you, God, for letting us have peace, for letting us graze in the fields and nuzzle our young, for letting us enjoy Your sun and Your shade. Thank you for the humans. They are wonderful."

When you hear their thank-you's, you will have atoned. Your heart will soar and be filled with joy.

---

Related site:

Jewish Veg: Jewish Recipes

Related Post:

For Yom Kippur, Give Up Eating Animals -- Forever

Imagine what's like to live in these conditions. Please calculate this suffering in the price of eggs.

What Erik Marcus witnessed on his egg farm visits are the same things newspaper and television reporters see when they visit these facilities. Filth, horror, sadness, and misery that immediately hits you in the face, and sticks with you. Row upon row of caged living beings, each one a complex individual if given the chance, reduced to prototypes of themselves, their personalities obliterated, their expressive vocabularies lost in the constant din. A shed full of miserable prisoners, who can do nothing except basically be there, in a time and space, until they're deemed not useful and killed.

Since you most likely can't visit an industrial hen farm, you can take a virtual tour here (Windows Media/QuickTime) and here (Windows Media/QuickTime). Also recommended: this tour of a commercial egg-laying facility (high speed/low speed).

I hope very much that you will consider the horrific conditions we impose on layer hens in your food-buying decisions. The only real way out of the dilemma is to divest yourself of partaking in the cruelty. Laying hens may be the most abused animals in all of farming. Giving up eggs and egg products reduces animal cruelty far more than giving up red meat. (In fact, if you replace red meat with poultry you're most likely increasing animal cruelty.) Buying cage-free eggs helps a little, maybe 20 percent. Switching to vegan replacements gets you the other 80 percent. A tiny fraction of us — far less than one percent — humanely raise our own hens or live near a family that has 30 hens wandering around the back yard, foraging and dust-bathing, and gently guided into their spacious, straw-filled coop each night. For the rest of us, here are three sites that help get you away from a despicably cruel enterprise:

Easy Vegetarian Recipes: Breakfast, from Compassion Over Killing.

Easy Vegetarian Recipes: Desserts, from Compassion Over Killing.

Vegan Menus, from PETA.

Thank you and good luck!

Animal exploitation industries and organizations use euphemisms to hide cruelties or to appear more benign to the public. For example, hunting groups talk about "harvesting" wildlife. No, we harvest corn; hunters kill wildlife. Industrial pig operations "cull" pigs. No, they kill them violently, as shown in this sickening video. Rodeo promoters changed "calf roping," in which baby calves running at top speed are slammed into the ground and often injured as a result, to "tie-down roping," thus eliminating the animal victim from the name of the abusive event.

Actually, the factory farm industry might be on the right track with CAFOs. I would suggest a simpler term: ACCs, for Animal Concentration Camps. Because that's what they are. Tens of thousands of animals in each facility, billions "processed" per year. Crowded, stripped of all dignity, and deprived of everything that gives their life meaning. The slightest pleasures — such as sleeping on solid ground or drinking their mothers' milk — are denied. Every innate, deeply-desired behavior is made impossible by the intense confinement and empty environment. Their bodies don't even work correctly; they're grossly top-heavy, their reproductive systems are on constant overdrive, and essential body parts are amputated. From their reactions, animals in these horrible conditions go into a state of terror and severe stress, or fall into utter hopelessness if not profound depression.

Transport conditions are notoriously unbearable, and it is an accepted "cost of doing business" that many animals die on their way to slaughter.

At the slaughterhouse, the animals are routinely tortured: they're drowned in near-boiling water, eviscerated while conscious, or knifed in the throat while paralyzed and hanging upside down. Human concentration camps were modeled after livestock slaughterhouse operations.

Excerpts from the latest newsletter of vegan health expert Michael Greger, M.D.:


Full article with references: http://www.drgreger.org/fall2005.html

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed type of cancer in men.

I've remarked in past posts that you can directly spare a thousand animals from suffering if you go vegan. Make that a thousand and one.

I made this vegan chili for dinner the other night. Everyone loved it and wanted seconds, including one person who had never heard the word "vegan."

The dish took a while to prepare, but it was worth it. Perfect for a cool fall weekend when you want to cook up something hearty and filling.

This veggie chili recipe looks great, too.

I've tried several vegan cheeses with varying results. This one I can recommend: Tofutti American Soy Cheese Slices. I use it in sandwiches all the time. I presume side by side with cow-based dairy cheese you'd be able to tell the difference, but in sandwiches you can't. Bonus: when you buy Tofutti cheese, you don't contribute to this.

By the way, when you're making sandwiches, try the veggie luncheon meats. They've gotten quite good. Yesterday I had LightLife's Smart Deli® Bologna Style Slices. Tastes close enough to the real thing — whatever that is — to fool your taste buds, your significant other, and your kids. The other Smart Deli flavors hit the mark, also: turkey, ham, and pastrami. I wouldn't call them health foods but they tend to be healthier than the foods they're replacing. Of course, they cause far less animal cruelty and are more environmentally friendly. If you don't see them in the supermarket, ask for them. Sometimes all it takes is two or three people to request a new product, and it shows up.

Enjoy!

(Note: Riblets for Charity offer still open. Scroll down, you'll see it.)

Dear McDonald's,

Whenever I offer friends or co-workers their first veggie chicken nugget, they like it. So far my success rate is 100 percent. Even die-hard meat eaters and skeptics often declare that they prefer the fake chicken nuggets to the real ones. Which leads me to conclude that we continue to eat chicken, at least in nugget form, because of a) inertia, and b) ignorance.

Polls consistently show the same result: people want farm animals to be treated humanely, yet they purchase the products of animals that they know were treated cruelly. Paradoxical but true. Consumers take the path of least resistance.

By adding Veggie McNuggets to its menu, McDonald's can help eaters overcome this dissonance, and more closely match their morals to their diet. McDonald's is in a unique position to influence American eating habits. When a new dish appears on the McDonald's menu, it gains instant legitimacy. "Mainstream" equals "McDonald's." Unfamiliar foods become normal and approachable as soon as they show up on the McDonald's menu. Not that veggie chicken nuggets are that exotic any more. They're now in almost every frozen food department in the country. Veggie meats are fast approaching critical mass.

McDonald's was a pioneer in the fast-food business in the 1950s. It led the way in the 1980s toward more environmentally responsible packaging. Its adoption of improved animal welfare standards in 2000 was the catalyst for other national chains to follow suit. Now it is time for the company to set the pace again.

I propose that you take the bold stroke. There are only so many ways you can reformulate a hamburger or chicken patty. Do something that leaves your competitors in the dust.

We no longer need chickens to make good-tasting chicken nuggets. In fact, technologically, they're passe. Chicken nuggets without chicken — at McDonald's — changes the world.

Now let me lay out the business case:

• If it tastes good and it's at McDonald's, people will eat it. Veggie chicken nuggets taste as good as regular chicken nuggets, maybe even better. They have the same texture and appearance. So the biggest obstacle is already overcome.


• The raw ingredients for veggie nuggets are cheaper to produce than those for chicken nuggets, which translates to potentially higher profit margins.


• Veggie nuggets are healthier than chicken nuggets. They're high-protein, which appeals to Atkins and South Beach devotees. They're also rich-tasting and filling, not bland — not a "health food."


• Chicken McNuggets are already mostly breading; that part of the recipe will likely stay the same.


• The way to get the public to buy Veggie McNuggets (or Veggie Chicken McNuggets, if you prefer) is to do a complete replacement of Chicken McNuggets. If Veggie McNuggets is an alternative, customers will stay with the status quo.


• The animal welfare benefits of switching from animal-based McNuggets to plant-based McNuggets are astounding. If you're at all concerned with animal welfare, you have to like this plan. You won't just be treating chickens a little less cruelly, you'll be eliminating the cruelty entirely. Billions of chickens will be spared. McDonald's will become a legend in the animal rights world and earn a decade of goodwill.


• The environmental benefits are nearly as impressive. People of all political persuasions admire a company that makes environmental strides without raising consumer prices or lowering quality. This is not only possible but virtually automatic with the switch to Veggie McNuggets.


• The marketing opportunities for this product are unlimited. Run with it. Do Coke vs. Pepsi-style taste tests. Emphasize the magic formula: healthier, earth- and animal-friendly, with the same great taste. Stand out from your competition. McDonald's instantly becomes leading edge, hip, and "green" simultaneously, and can attract celebrities and advertise in markets that were formerly out of its reach.

Please think it over. Or be spontaneous. It's time to show the world that McDonald's isn't a "me too" player. This is the century in which the West moves away from a meat-based diet. The trend is already well underway; check out the growth rates of mock meat sales. McDonald's has an opportunity to re-establish itself as a market visionary, reduce animal suffering, help save the planet, and improve its bottom line in one fell swoop.

P.S. While you're at it, why not work out a deal with GardenBurger Riblets? Out-flank Burger King and its BK Veggie® by a mile. Riblets taste as at least as good as the old McRibs, they have name recognition, and they're selling briskly in the stores. As with veggie chicken nuggets, every meat-eater that tries Riblets is amazed by how good they are. Bonus: they're VEGAN.

P.P.S. The apple-walnut salad is a nice addition. Kudos. But that's a minor touch-up. Veggie McNuggets is monumental.

The animals are bred to suffer.

Think about it: the modern chicken industry is built on causing heart disease in baby chickens. How far will we go in institutional meanness? Where are our bounds for callous disregard of animal welfare?

Meat-eaters...my friends..people whom I respect who eat meat: that chicken breast you're about to buy came from an animal whose life was filled with disease, pain, and suffering. He had nothing close to a normal life. There was probably not one minute when he felt content. He just sort of existed for seven weeks in a stinking, windowless, crowded shed. A pet chicken or chicken in a farm sanctuary (example) gets to wander around, enjoy fresh air, bask in the sun, dust-bathe, forage in the ground, explore his surroundings. Not these guys (example, example). They don't even have beaks to clean their feathers. Some fall down — permanently — because their legs can't support their weight. Are you sure you can't sidle over a couple of aisles and try the veggie chicken, which is not plagued with these problems?

A good and moral person, like you, does not want to make animals suffer if it can be easily prevented. And it can be easily prevented. If you're like most people, your eating habits are stuck in a rut. You pretty much stick to the same, fairly narrow pattern that you've been in for years. But you can break out of it, and adopt a MUCH more animal-friendly, earth-friendly diet that also happens to be tasty, rich in nutrients, and affordable. Vegetarian and vegan (animal-free) food options are overflowing these days; just Google the Internet for "recipe vegan" or even "recipe vegan chicken" and you'll see what I mean. I'll get back to this in just a minute, after some commentary on some of the horrors and lies in today's chicken industry.

The chicken industry — like the fur industry and the circus industry and the rodeo industry and every industry that profits from maiming and injuring and killing and, at times, torturing animals — claims that they care about animal welfare, that they are concerned about their animals, that of course it's in their best interest to have healthy animals so why wouldn't they take good care of them?

It makes me want to puke. These industries don't care squat about their animals. They have, in so many words, admitted it over and over in industry journals and conferences. Any claims of care for the animals are just spin. 15 minutes inside any large chicken house would make that abundantly clear. The animal exploitation industries give lip service to animal welfare only as a means to deflect criticism, and they hope that consumers are stupid, ignorant, or apathetic enough to buy it.

The meat and fur industries have spent decades determining how awful they can treat animals just to save money, kill them sooner, and sell more of their flesh, fur, eggs, and milk. (Yes, egg-laying hens and dairy cows are all slaughtered at young ages, by which time they're already half-dead from the stress and physical toil.) The meat industry breeds animals into distended, life-threatening shapes. They deny them everything. They fight animal welfare laws. They house, transport, and kill animals in the roughest, most uncaring ways they can. The corporate managers of wide-scale animal exploitation seem to have no shame and no morals to guide their business practices. I just can't find it. They will stoop to any lie and engage in any cruelty to increase profits and market share. You think of a horror that is just beyond the pale, that is so heinous it simply couldn't happen today, in a civilized society, on a farm, and I will show you something worse that has happened, and might be happening right now as you read this.

And, by the way, the meat industry doesn't treat their low-level workers very well, either. Family farms have been all but wiped out. New slaughterhouse employees at one of the most dangerous jobs in America typically have no health insurance. And that's the tip of the iceberg. (Peruse the early archives of Virgil Butler's CyberActivist blog to see how ruthless these companies can be.) We're not out of The Jungle yet, and in some ways, things have gotten worse.

The chicken industry bigwigs — a handful of companies dominate the industry — know that consumers are opposed to the abject cruelty that's inflicted on factory farm chickens every day, and that the animals feel at all times. So they do everything they can to divert attention away from the non-stop horror movie that plays out in chicken houses and slaughterhouses. They know that a steady barrage of happy images, even if they bear no resemblance to reality, creates its own reality and persuades the target audience to put the screams and suffering of animals out of sight, out of mind. Am I right? If you eat meat, you kind of know that behind the scenes it is ugly, maybe even indefensible, but when you're in the line at KFC (which is perhaps the food company with the worst animal welfare record in the country), ordering the Value Meal, you're not thinking about the suffering that went into every piece of chicken. You're probably not inclined to look for broken bones, joint inflammation, and other signs of inhumane treatment in the chicken legs in the box. Believe me, the profiteers of misery use every trick in the book to perpetuate massive animal cruelty and turn your attention away from it. They've invested a ton of resources in getting consumers to focus on only one thing — buying more product. They use everyday lies to cover up everyday cruelty.

The meat industry in general tantalizes and entices and lulls people into buying the products of suffering. They use focus groups and backlighting and clever dialog and sympathetic characters and enhanced photography and slogans and likeable celebrities and playgrounds and toys and mascots to lure people into consuming the product — even though we could replace half the chicken products in restaurants and stores TODAY with veggie alternatives and almost no one would notice. Eating patterns are habitual and conditioned, and the food industry, which spends billions on advertising, knows this.

But you can break out of habits. You can overcome years of conditioning and help end the unspeakable horrors of modern animal farms. Don't just look for more humane animal food sources. Yes, you'll decrease the cruelty by a small notch — but watch out because the food industry will go to extreme and unethical lengths to try to trick you into thinking you're buying humanely-raised animals when you really aren't. The "Animal Care Certified," label, recently downgraded to "UEP Certified" after pressure from animal rights and business ethics groups, sounds like a standard of care. It's a virtual guarantee of horrid conditions: severe confinement, amputations without painkillers, no exercise, no solid floor, denial of natural behaviors, putrid food, and zero veterinary care for sick animals. Corporations that have no moral qualms about making billions of animals suffer and then lying about it won't flinch at misusing marketing terms with abandon, telling consumers anything they want to hear, to keep the money flowing.

So, the industry will lead you on, giving you the illusion that you're being progressive and charging you a premium to buy "free-range" meat (which is usually a scam). Know that they are not interested in treating animals humanely, and are at this moment thinking up new ways to squeeze more "productivity" out of animals. Better to just get to the endpoint and quit meat cold turkey — or cold Tofurky.

If you've never seriously considered vegetarianism, you may have these notions that vegetarians are a breed apart, that they're not like you, that an animal-free diet is impossible and boring, that you won't get enough nutrients, that your friends, family members and business associates will be skeptical and question you endlessly. Your fears are almost certainly way overblown. In 2005, you need not worry about any of this. There is a plethora of vegetarian and vegan web sites, cook books, how-to books, social groups, advocacy groups, online forums, and magazines. As long as you follow some basic guidelines, your diet is more than likely going to be much healthier without animal products than with them. People of all persuasions — weightlifters, Navy seamen, country music stars, Christian evangelicals, Fortune 1000 CEOs, you name it — have given up meat and dairy for ethical reasons. Being humane, doing the right thing, respecting animals, is not and should not be the province of any one political, ethnic, or demographic group. If your friends and family have questions, it is very easy to tell them that farm animals are treated horribly and you cannot in good conscience add to their suffering when it so preventable. Then tell them about some alternatives, from veggie sausage to soy milk to good old bean and rice tacos. There are bunch of vegetarian ethnic dishes — falafel, hummus, numerous Indian dishes, and literally thousands more — that are DELICIOUS. And there's always the much-maligned tofu. It's versatile. Don't count it out. There's a ton of good food out there. You have no idea how much food is out there. If you're like most people (including me), you've probably overlooked most of it for most of your life, and are eating this tiny sliver of the spectrum of food choices. You don't have to worry about variety or taste, or any of that as a vegetarian. And it keeps getting easier.

There are some good brochures that say this for you in a succinctly, powerful, and friendly way, and that include some powerful pictures. (Check out Even If You Like Meat by Vegan Outreach and the Christian Vegetarian Association's Honoring God's Creation pamphlets.)

The message is sound and simple, and one by one the people who know you will drift toward your enlightened way of thinking. Offer them some veggie chicken nuggets or chili sin carne. Make it interesting. Before you serve it, bet the skeptics a six-pack or a dinner or movie or sporting-event tickets that they'll like it. Barring a heart attack, some skeptics will resist reducing their meat intake for years — self-protection and inertia are formidable barriers; some will see the light quickly; still others will be curious but timid. I see this happen all the time. Some men will hang onto the macho thing for a while. Women don't have this hangup and are usually more open minded. The "real men eat meat" mantra is ridiculous anyway. We kill gentle animals like lambs and small harmless animals like chickens, most often when they're still babies. In factory farms we rape turkeys, castrate baby pigs and bulls, and forcibly steal newborns from their mothers. Isn't that manly? Real men are compassionate, and women know that.

No worries about your self-image or reputation when you're practicing compassion and doing the right thing. No worries especially because the MINUTE you start giving up meat, you are saving animals and reducing the amount of suffering in the world. Your impact is immediate. It feels great.

Talk it over with your spouse, your partner, your roommates, your family. Lifestyle changes are more enjoyable when you're doing it as a group and have support. See how you can make changes in your diet to reduce and eventually eliminate animal products from your house. You'll be helping animals (God's creatures if you're so inclined), the environment, and in most cases your health. It is a triple win. YOU CAN DO IT!

(See the GardenBurger Riblets challenge post below for a cool way to kick-start your transition while helping deserving charities — for free!)

---

Related Article (and video):

COK [Compassion Over Killing] Investigation Exposes Chicken Industry Cruelty


KFC buys chickens from this plant.

---

[This is the first installment of the online book tour of Meat Market, by Erik Marcus. Each installment highlights a different passage of the book, sometimes with lengthy commentary (as in this post), sometimes with little or no commentary. We will work our way front to back. The book tour posts will be intermixed with related posts. Feel free to discuss or tell me about parts of the book that you like — or don't like.]

"Imagine being shoved inside a small closet with barely enough room to move. Your feet begin to ache from the hard floor so you contort your body just enough to sit down. But after a while, this position offers no more comfort and you struggle to stand up again. The lack of room to walk or even turn around starts to atrophy your muscles, and festering sores on your feet make every movement agony. Now imagine spending six years like this-and you'll begin to understand what life is like for nearly 6 million pregnant or nursing pigs in the United States."

(The European Union, in response to conclusive studies showing that restrictive "gestation crates" create enormous discomfort, stress, and frustration in pigs, and lead to higher rates of sleep deprivation, lameness, bed sores, neurotic coping behaviors, and other evidence of physical and psychological suffering, banned their use because they are so detrimental to animal welfare. Gestation crates are standard practice in the U.S.)

This special offer is open only to meat-eaters. Not vegans, not vegetarians. People who eat meat on a regular basis -- and who have never tried GardenBurger Riblets. Here's how it works:

You pick up a box of GardenBurger Riblets and finish the box — it's about two healthy-sized servings. I prefer them North Carolina-style, on a bun with cole slaw piled on top. Let me know how you liked them, if you would buy them again, what they could do differently to make them more enticing, and if you would recommend them to others.

Select a favorite charity that we both agree on. It doesn't have to be an animal charity, although most folks like Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. It can be a people charity. As you might expect, it can't be a health charity that funds or performs animal experiments, but there are plenty of good charities that don't, such as Easter Seals, Birth Defect Research for Children, and UNICEF. If you select a charity you like from www.HumaneSeal.org, you can't go wrong.

I'll donate one hundred dollars to the charity you select. I'll do this to the first five takers.

Again — mutually agreeable charities only. You may want to present a list of five if you have some borderline ones. Don't worry — I promise I won't keep saying "no." I want to do this. If for some reason you're playing games, I'll select one. I don't think this will happen. Just wanted to mention how I'll prevent endless loops.

We're largely on the honor system. I know we both want our privacy protected — especially you; I'm already pretty un-private with the blog. However, we may be able to work out a deal where you receive a guest notification from the charity. I'll put animalwritings.com or some giveaway in the text.

Here's the SPECIAL BONUS. If you do not like the Riblets, I'll make it two hundred dollars. Be honest.

The biggest downside of Riblets is that they're high in salt (although they don't taste salty), which is very common with packaged products. So wash it down with a big glass of water, maybe a cold beer. There are plenty of lower salt processed veggie meats, and of course if you cook your own food from scratch you can control the salt almost entirely. But the Riblets are a good gateway to the world of veggie meats. Science has gotten quite adept at taking non-meat substrates, adding seasonings, and making it taste like old favorites.

Pigs are one of the worst treated animals on the planet. Most live — if you can call it that — in factory farms, where their lives are bleak, painful, and empty. They grow huge, beyond what their bones and legs can comfortably carry, while standing in a cage that, for their size, is tiny. You probably know that pigs are intelligent and curious. On a factory farm, that's all stifled. They stand around and never have one remotely fun or interesting thing to do. They get no exercise, no play, no change of scenery or weather. It's a rotten, miserable life, designed by Smithfield and paid for by consumers of pork.

At the slaughterhouse, some pigs are tortured. There's no other word for it. Bleeding pigs are dunked into scalding water that makes their skin separate from their bones. This is a torture technique, and if you did it to a pet you'd be convicted of a felony and maybe locked up.

No matter how much you like meat, eat meat, or defend meat, if you have a conscience it's a great feeling to know that you are enjoying the taste of spare ribs without putting animals through Hell.

Are you game? You have nothing to lose. There are no catches. You don't get on a mailing list. Nothing. You get introduced to a new food — which is available at most leading supermarkets now — and I give money to a charity you choose. Let me know through email (info@animalwritings.com) or through a comment to this post.

(Cooking hint: cut the end of the inner plastic package before putting it in the microwave — it makes it much easier to remove the Riblets.)

Vegetarians, don't feel left out. Tell friends and family members.

Limit one charity payout per contestant.

P.S. Riblets are great on the grill.

They layed out glue traps in the Pentagon. A small mouse got stuck. For a long time he tried to free himself. Office workers heard him squealing and squeaking at the top of his lungs. The "pest patrol" person came by. He stepped on the mouse with his boot. He had "waffle" soles on his boot; the mouse's head jerked and stuck out from the side of his boot. One onlooker threw up.

The bow-hunter commented that when hunting deer, he doesn't use a big rifle, in order to make it a fair chase. Plus, he said, the deer's senses are much better than his -- a significant benefit.

[In the woods...]

You nutty deer, you. You have all the advantages. It's not fair. Quit talking me into these contests that you know I have a hard time winning. Your senses are so keen, how do I even have a chance?

Thwack! Ah—got ya, you knucklehead!

Looks like I didn't get a clean shot. You moved at the last second. Very tricky. Hey, don't run away. You're faster than I am. Show-off! Luckily I can track you; you're leaving a trail of blood.

There you are, you rascal! You're much more skilled at this than I am, but I managed to find you. You're breathing kind of funny. Sounds kind of hoarse. Don't play some sly animal game with me; you know how good you are at this.

Guess I'll finish you off. You've already collapsed and it's no fun to see you rubbing the big hole in your side against the tree trunk and dripping all over the ground.

Thwack! I win! Amazing, since you have all the experience, and the favorable position. In fact, on the season, you're way ahead. You won five matches, I only won once.

Your friend over there that you hang out with — used to hang out with — seems kind of down. Maybe I can capitalize on this rare opportunity. Little old me, with nothing but a bow and arrow — nothing compared to his superior speed and highly developed sense of smell and sight. The odds are way against me, but bravely I say, "let the game begin."

The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) claims they're for consumer freedom. Not really. They're interested in increasing their client's profits, no matter how much it may hurt consumers, the environment, or animals.

CCF represents the infamous factory farm industry, which manufacturers hundreds of billions of genetically deformed animals, crams them into ridiculously tiny spaces, and denies them exercise, stimulation, fresh air, and comfort. Half the dairy cows become lame, newborn chicks are suffocated, laying hens can't lift one wing, sows don't have enough room to turn around, and cows are inflicted with third-degree burns from hot irons and castrated and dehorned without painkillers.

CCF and their factory farm clients frustrate consumers' freedom to make informed choices about the food — especially animal-derived food — that they buy:

• Every one of CCF's clients' portrayals of farms — on packaging, advertisements, and delivery trucks — is of pleasant, Old MacDonald's-style farms that bear no resemblance to today's concentration camp-like facilities: tens of thousands of animals crowded into windowless sheds, prevented from performing basic physical and social behaviors, their overgrown bodies aching from lack of exercise and hormone-induced obesity; a sea of animals basically suffering in place until they die or are killed. Factory farm animals are forced to endure the worst possible conditions that will keep them alive until they're ready to be slaughtered — and many don't even last that long. Those that make it to slaughter look pitiful; their rotten environment takes a terrible toll on their psyches and physical health. They're missing feathers, they have sores covering their legs, many are unable to walk; they have no spirit left — quite unlike the happy cartoon characters in industry materials. The factory farm industry essentially lies to you through pictures.


• CCF and their clients try to hide or deny the horrific confinement of factory farms and the bloody torture of slaughterhouses from consumers. If you knew that probably every day, fully conscious chickens and pigs are scalded alive, and that improperly stunned cows have their sides split open while still awake and aware, you might think twice about buying meat. CCF and their clients do not want you to think about these sickening aspects of the food industry. In fact, they are terrified at the prospect.


• Industry-invented animal care "standards" are a consumer fraud. At first glance, they sound like an assurance of welfare, but in reality they're a virtual guarantee of cruelty — severe crowding, amputations without painkillers, no vet care for sick animals, no access to the outdoors, no freedom of movement — basically, a whole slate of infractions that would result in animal cruelty violations if done to a pet. See EggScam.com.


• Don't expect CCF and their factory farm clients to give you worthwhile information on food poisoning from e coli, salmonella, and other deadly bacteria. Not to mention Mad Cow Disease. They won't tell you that feedlot cattle's' unnatural corn diet may be creating a haven for new strains of deadly e coli. They won't tell you that most packages of chicken are swimming in a bacteria-infested fecal soup. Because of meat industry power, USDA doesn't even have the power to recall tainted meat. Yes, you read that correctly.


• The dairy industry, which CCF vigorously defends and which is dominated by factory farms, claims that milk helps you lose weight, but evidence clearly points to it doing the opposite. The "Drink Milk Lose Weight" campaign was based on an INDUSTRY-FUNDED study of ELEVEN PEOPLE. If CCF cared one ounce about consumers they would have denounced the campaign as dangerously deceptive junk science.


• You don't have the freedom to sue the dairy industry when they give out knowingly wrong, potentially harmful health advice to the public. They claim they're part of the government and are therefore immune from lawsuits by private citizens. Are you kidding me? The dairy industry is not a government agency, they're subsidized by the government — i.e., you and me. Such a sleazy attempt to avoid accountability shows contempt, not respect for consumers. Big Dairy constructs an obviously bogus justification for their right to lie to you with impunity, and CCF attacks critics of these outlandish anti-consumer tactics.


• Tyson Foods, a major contributor to CCF, claimed on their web site that for good health you can eat as much chicken as you want. No mainstream health group would agree with such nonsense. All advise you to limit meat intake. The very moderate USDA food pyramid says the same thing. Disinformation to make you buy more product at your health's expense is not my idea of expanding consumer freedom.


• Are you an environmentally-friendly consumer? Factory farms spew massive amounts of waste into fresh water, the ground, and the air. You, your children, the soil, fish, wildlife, and the earth are the losers. Trust me, you will not get objective information on this huge ecological downside of factory farms from CCF or the industries generating the pollution.


• CCF and its clients deny that factory farms are inhumane. This is incredible. Here, I'll give you the freedom to make your own decision:
  
  Photo-exhibit of factory farming
  
  "Free range" myths
  
  Why go vegan?
  
  The pain of de-beaking (a standard practice in the chicken industry)
  
  What is a factory farm?
  
  Would you like ground spinal cord with that? (An interview with Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser)

CCF thumbs their nose at freedom of information:

• CCF won't reveal who's buttering their bread. Consumer watchdog groups have found out that it's powerful industries that control large chunks of the factory farm sector.


• CCF claims they're a charity. What a joke. They're an industry front group that represents their clients' interests. They lobby on behalf of the corporations that pay their bills. To add insult to injury, CCF pays money to private consulting firms that just so happen to be headed by the director of CCF. That's sleazy. They're ripping you off.

CCF is a threat to your freedom of mobility, health, and security

CCF, in opposition to every major medical and public health organization in the country, claims there is no obesity crisis, that it's all just hype. That extremist attitude reveals CCF's true agenda: they're pro-consumption but anti-consumer. Fact: two-thirds of the American population is overweight. Fact: rates of diabetes are rising rapidly; Fact: one third of young people in the U.S. are overweight or at risk of being overweight.

CCF's clients' profits grow the more you eat. They push high-fat, high-calorie, low-nutrient foods like bacon, fried chicken, and soda. The advertisements are everywhere and constant. Every five minutes on major network television there is a commercial that features meat or dairy. Companies advertise to increase consumption of their products. It's working. We've turned into the fattest country in the history of the world.

When your body is saddled with extra fat, you lose freedom in a BIG WAY. Your heart has to work harder. Your bones and joints are under extra strain. You run out of breath when you climb the stairs or walk up a hill. You can't play sports very well because you get too tired. What if you had to walk at a fast pace for half an hour to save your life — or your child's life?

CCF's clients deluge you with advertisements for their unhealthy food that show lean, happy, active people. It's a fakeout to get you to consume more. The marketing starts with young kids and has creeped into schools. Ronald McDonald, happy meals, playgrounds, toy collections, and paid celebrities entice children into eating fast foods that are heavy on meat, almost vacant on vegetables and fruit. Lack of fiber from insufficient legumes, fruit, vegetables, and whole grains causes constipation and is probably a factor in colon cancer. As your arteries clog up from the saturated fat, it affects your sexual performance. To have a healthy heart and other organs, eat less meat and more produce and whole grains. Here's a web site to get you on your way.

As you transition to a healthy humane diet, you will discover dozens if not hundreds of delicious plant-based foods that you never knew existed, or that you ignored. Baby bok choy, mustard greens, spelt and quinoa grains, tempeh and seitan soy products, and a veritable explosion of veggie meats — everything from pork barbecue to Buffalo wings. If we can break away from the diet that the meat industry shoves down our throats, and adopt a vegetarian diet that even they admit is healthier, we will reduce the amount of suffering in the world, reduce the amount of money we have to shell out for medications, reduce the amount of pollution dumped in into the water and soil, and reduce the amount of land and fossil fuels used to grow food. All chickens will look like this:



instead of this:


(This is the same chicken, by the way. The bottom photo shows her just after she was rescued from a factory farm. The top photo shows her a few months later, after she was restored to health by an animal protection group.)

Addendum

The Center for Consumer Freedom interferes with your freedom from deadly bird flu.

Eighty thousand birds crammed into a small area, their immune systems weakened by chronic stress, feces dropping on their wings and its dust filling the air — you could not invent a more perfect breeding ground for a virus to breed and mutate. CCF vigorously defends this setup, even though it could create a worldwide epidemic that would put tens of millions at great risk. Profits before public health.

"Disregard for farmed animals persists because few people realize the ways in which these individuals are mistreated, and even fewer actually witness the abuse. Once aware, most people are appalled--not because they believe in animal rights, but because they believe that animals feel pain and that morally decent human beings should try to prevent pain whenever possible."

Every 11 years, the sun changes its spots. As I think back through the various sunspot cycles of my life, each earlier one seems more innocent.

In the last sunspot cycle, my father-in-law Joe was hale and hearty, not senile. Uncle Harold was just enigmatic Uncle Harold, always working on another scheme. His wife hadn't yet committed suicide, and he didn't have to undergo chemotherapy to shrink amyloid tissue that had formed around his heart. Our good friend Nadine was exploring different careers; she hadn't yet been killed in a car accident, hit broadside by a drunk driver who ran a stop sign. Nephew Stan was about to graduate from high school. He hadn't yet fathered a child out of wedlock, joined the Army, and been promptly shipped overseas to a dangerous part of the world. Jerry, the neighborhood cat who lived across the street and knew everybody, hadn't yet been run over by a car.

All the family members and friends in my wife's and my age group were reasonably secure in their jobs. No one was destitute; we could all afford to go out and eat once in a while. The country was sufficiently prosperous. Retirement was too far away to really worry about. Everyone had 401Ks or a government pension plan and we were not too concerned about our finances 30 years down the road.

I was blissfully unaware of everyday massive animal abuses. I thought milk cows grazed in the grass. I had no idea that they were jabbed with electronic prods because they were too weak to walk to the truck that would deliver them to the slaughterhouse. I figured eggs came from hens that wandered around the barnyard. I didn't know they were confined to tiny cages that practically made them immobile their entire lives. I didn't know they slept on wire grates, or had their beaks severed, or never got fresh air or saw the outside. Eggs just came in a carton. I assumed chickens were killed quickly and painlessly, and I may not have believed you if you had told me they often were fully alive and conscious but bleeding profusely when their heads were dunked in scalding hot water. I didn't think about hot branding irons or castrations or chicks being suffocated or mother cows searching for their infants that had been dragged to the veal pen. My concept of animal experiments was rats in a maze, not monkeys who lived for years with all their extremities strapped to a hideous-looking torture device. I had not heard of learned helplessness experiments, where they see how much pain an animal will endure before it becomes hopeless and too exhausted to try to fight it. I didn't know that making a fur coat entailed trapping animals in medieval devices or driving them insane from intense confinement and deprivation; I just thought they were gaudy.

One sunspot cycle and many events ago... The images I remember most vividly, the ones I hold onto in earnest, are — wouldn't you know it — the same ones they show in Hallmark commercials and phony "family values" political advertisements...

We're having a backyard barbecue. I'm flipping burgers (I was not eating meat, mostly for ecological reasons, but had no compunctions about making exceptions now and then). The weather's just hot enough for a cold beer. The guys stand around the grill and we talk about the world, our jobs, TV, sports, anything we want. Everyone's a jokester and we get pretty rowdy with our laughter. Stan and his two brothers are rough-housing. Nadine and her mom try to teach us how to talk Cajun. Joe always has one World War II story that lasts a little too long, but we dutifully listen. The burgers are perfect, cousin Sally's potato salad is delicious and so is my mother-in-law's fruit salad. The sun makes its way across the sky, and by late afternoon angles in under the umbrella. It's always somebody's birthday or anniversary, so we all go around to the front to head inside for cake and ice cream. Only to find that rascal Jerry, appropriating the front stoop for some sunbathing.

We're visiting relatives in New York City. The sky is glorious and drenched in blue. The pineapples and strawberries on the street vendor's table look absolutely delectable, and we order two big fruit shakes. We don't really need t-shirts but we buy two that have pictures of New York from a guy who's selling them just outside Central Park. New York City is built for walking and we walk up and down every major thoroughfare and tucked-away side street, window-shopping and people-watching, energized by the electricity of the city. As we look south down 5th Avenue we can see the World Trade Center buildings, twin beacons overlooking Manhattan. A truly remarkable jewel. Uncle Harold buzzes us up to his apartment. We sit on the couch with him and his wife Diane. The big picture window overlooks rooftops and the East River. He knows a great deli just around the block. We eat too much and take the long way back.

I reminisce, like we all do... Then I think to myself...what about the next sunspot cycle? Right now will seem like the good old days. I'll look back at myself as a youthful adult, full of vigor and dreams. And then it becomes clear. Father-in-law Joe is still around, and has his lucid moments. Stan has a new wife and his kids are turning out all right. My wife takes her mother to mass every Sunday; then they spend some "girl time" together shopping. My parents