Thanksgiving at the Jersey Shore

We walked the boardwalk and played a rousing game of skee ball.





There were many starfish washed up on the shore.



Buster loves the beach.



We had so much fun! The beach was beautiful, but cold.

You Are What You Eat

Thursday night I attended a reading and discussion session with Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Eating Animals. Jonathan is a fellow resident of Park Slope, and was presenting his book in support of the Community Bookstore, which is a wonderful privately owned establishment here in the neighborhood.

There are some thorough reviews of Eating Animals, written from different perspectives. Links to a few of the best are below:

New York Times Books: Hungry?
The Washington Post: Jonathan Safran Foer’s Animal Farm
USA Today: Ready for Dog Stew?
Natalie Portman: Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals Turned Me Vegan

Omnivore, Vegetarian, Vegan, Human Being, I encourage you to read this book. The subject of eating animals is provocative. The issue is fraught with emotion and conversations can often become divisive, with meat eaters on one side and those who would eschew meat on the other. That is a shame, because that division obscures the facts. Unless one is a sadist, as humans we can all agree that animal cruelty in any form – even one that is sanctioned, subsidized, and supported in every supermarket across America – is just wrong.

The realities of factory farming are beyond cruel, and are so far removed from the pastoral image of Old Mac Donald’s farm that we all grew up with. This transition from humane family farming to ‘crank ‘em out at any cost’ factory farming has happened so rapidly and subtly that none of us really knew what was happening.

Safran Foer spent 3 years exhaustively researching (his statistics are backed up with 70 pages of footnote citations) the truths of factory farming. And the reality is that the cost the factory farming industry exacts on the environment, the land, the animals, and ultimately the consumers of the meat products that it spits out is too high for any of us to continue to pay. It’s time to know the facts and make important choices about where our food comes from. Too much is at steak.

Mama Mia!

My Mom was here for a visit this past weekend and did we ever have fun! We visited The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the famous Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, we strolled along Central Park, took Buster to Prospect Park, explored the shops and boutiques of Brooklyn, and spent a marathon day shopping in SoHo and NoLita.

A Painfully Obvious Tip for the Painfully Naive

Here's a tip for those who are new to life in New York: If you live in Brooklyn and decide to leave town for the weekend, make sure that you don't try to drive home to Brooklyn during the New York City marathon.

This tip brought to you by me, Chairperson of the Association for Horrendously Apparent Truths (AssHATs).