Posted on 04/11/2004 3:13:10 PM PDT by quidnunc
I've never met a vegetarian I liked. Believe me, I've met my share and have more than an intimate knowledge of the subject having closely researched it for the best part of 15 years.
The mung bean mafia are generally prone to flatulence, have poor personal hygiene, make terrible dinner companions and share a gastronomic gene pool with those disposed toward mass murder and violence. And quite possibly fat.
Case study one: Adolf Hitler was a herbivore. The Dalai Lama is not.
Case study two: Russell Crowe's past crankiness and weight problems can be blamed on a vegetarian diet and method acting. Had he stuck to the fruit of the cow/sheep/pig/chicken or whatever-it-is-they-put-in-pies/sausage rolls* he could be as slim as a super model.
It's true. An Austrian anthropologist studied the skeletons of 70 gladiators and discovered the mighty Roman warriors — men you'd expect to use their jaws to tear strips of raw meat from thick animal bones — were, well, vegetarians.
"They ate mainly barley, beans and dried fruit," Karl Grossschmidt of Austria's Institute of Archaeology reported. "This diet, which has been mentioned in the oral history, is rather sad, but it gave the gladiators a lot of strength even if it made them fat."
Fat and cranky that is. Grossschmidt's studies go on to clear up one important gladiator myth: the fighters did not wear leather thongs. While they did share murderous qualities with the rest of the carrot clique, it is good to know that they did not share their awful dress sense.
So much bile must have a source. So the time has come in this column to make the difficult admission that I was once a long-term vegetarian. Unfortunately I'm currently in remission so there is a lot of self-loathing going on (not to mention malodorous explosions, bad clothes and anti-Semitic thoughts).
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
Four'N'Twenty is an Australian compant that makes meat pies and sausage rolls.
The name is derived from "four'n'twenty blackbirds baked in a pie".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.