Vegetarian Spiders

I made some fantastic discoveries recently.

1) The first ever predominantly vegetarian spider was discovered in Central America and Mexico.

I generally like spiders anyway because they eat flies.  But this one is JUST LIKE ME. YAY.

2) There is a book called My Mom Eats Tofu.

I've decided to collect progressive children's books about alternative lifestyles and befriend vegetarian animals. I already own My Daddy's a Nurse which I found while shopping for ugly Christmas sweaters last December at a hospital thrift store where my grandpa used to work. I bought and met the author of My Mom Eats Tofu this weekend. She was vivacious, ultra-conscious of her community and her carbon footprint.
BUT...

...here's the thing. There is this part:

and this part:

This made me a little uncomfortable. While I <3 vegan cookies, the last couple of lines had me raising my eyebrows.

Like, as if knowing the dress or food or dance of a culture makes you well versed in and tolerant of this particular culture. While the book as a whole is incredibly cool because it makes little vegetarian kids feel like they're not freaks (which was something I felt often), it reminds me of when people I have just met and with whom I have had no discussion about my background or identity tell me that they LOVE Indian food. That's great, asshole, what do you want me to say? A few possibilities:

1) "OMG what a coincidence! You should come over so I can cook you 5 million delicious curries that I memorized at age 5 like a nice Indian girl should."

2) "Indian food? Indians eat....food??!? First I've heard of that."

3) " I can shit out a pretty good curry sauce when I concentrate real hard. You should try it sometime."

Honestly, I can't say I know any 'culture' well at all. Perhaps a  culture of a very specific experience, based upon heritage, class, family structure, race, gender, etc, etc., the list goes on and on. But still.
I don't fucking care that you LOVE naan.

As a whole, though, I really enjoyed this book. Not only did it take me all of one minute to read, I also think it has a lot of potential to make an alternative lifestyle (or diet, in this case) more acceptable to children, and to everyone. I have more of an issue with essentializing cultures and people than with the book.

Back to befriending vegetarian animals. I am so on top of this. The tortoise on my profile picture is actually Leo Tolstoy, my vegetarian Russian tortoise who loves to cuddle. He lives with my family now and bff with my dog, who doesn't really like him. I miss them. I need to repost my desperate craigslist ad begging people to let me walk their dogs.

Fuzzy photos

Enjoy a few out-of-focus photos from my phone. I like to think the poor quality of these makes me seem more endearing. But really, I have shaky hands.


I went to a place called "So's Your Mom" in Adams Morgan, and I found this delightful cookie which looked like it had fallen out of Willy Wonka's wet dream. It didn't taste as good as it looked.

This dog is sweet. Check it out, chillin' on the windowsill. This dog's a mad playa.

This was some sort of soup and edemame at a cozy little place called Teaism near Dupont Circle. The soup has "Teaism" written on it in something. Clever.

Evidence of my first (and thus far, only,) venture into DC's very own gated community: Georgetown. The above is what the tourists are allowed to see. Needless to say, I live far, far away from here.
Kabs told Oriel that this was a monument to the American Phallus. Not too far off.

Kabir's roommate likes to collect Michael Jordan figurines and surround them with tiny plastic adoring Smurf fans. This is too much.

I have other photos. But I'll leave the photos of the real things for facebook. Where people actually look at them.