Since losing my handyman job a lot of good things have happened. I’ve started this awesome blog, gotten up on stage at the MOTH a couple of times, actually submitted some of my stuff to actual publishers, but best of all, I’ve lost 20 or so pounds.

One day I realized I didn’t have any meat for dinner, and the choice was to go get some or eat something else. I ate something else instead, and came to the sudden realization that meat didn’t have to be an essential part of every meal, something I’d held as gospel my whole life.

Since that day, I only eat meat once a day, and far less of it than I used to. And I try to keep it to fish or fowl. Not that I don’t enjoy the occasional hot dog or hamburger.

Of course, none of this has anything to do with Maggie Estep’s recent blogpost ANIMALS, which you can find here: http://www.maggieestep.com/animals/.

But it is an interesting read, so read it if you can.

When I started doing this, one of my all-time favorite movies came to mind, The Island Of Lost Souls. This is a movie from the 1930’s based on the H.G. Wells story The Island Of Dr. Moreau.

The movie stars a terrific Charles Laughton as Moreau, and Richard Arlen as “the guy who falls off the ship.” But the best one in the movie is an unrecognizable Bela Lugosi as “the sayer of the law.”

After Charles Laughton, the evil Dr. Moreau playing god, whip in hand demands of his “part man, part beast” denizens “What is the law?” Bela answers for all:

“Not to eat meat.” Then he intones:

“Not to run on all fours.” And finishes with the admonishment:

“Are we not men?” I’ll bet Mark Mothersbaugh is a fan of this movie too.

I don’t do it for any moral reasons; I’ve slaughtered and eaten a couple of animals myself, and helped slaughter and dress bigger animals. That’s what humans have been doing for a long time. And face it, if a carnivore found you in the wild and was hungry, he wouldn’t think twice about how happy a life you’ve lived, it would just kill you and eat you.

So, I’m not going to go into the science of how much saturated fat there is in meat, especially red meat (and pork is red meat despite appearances) or just how bad meat with steroids is for you, all I’m going to say is that I can see the difference in the mirror.

One of my favorite new dishes is avocado and tomato slices on top of garbanzo beans I’ve made myself. It qualifies as vegetarian, even though avocados and tomatoes are technically fruit.

And check out this awesome piece of salmon with asparagus, greasy, but I hear that fish oil is good for the brain.