The greasy-hands guy also seemed to own about five books, as far as I could tell: two vaguely-conservative political books, and three "how to be happy" books. The meat-eating was way way down on the list of reasons why I broke up with him.

There was a woman in line behind me at the grocery store today buying a package of Hostess cupcakes, a big bag of beef jerky, and a Coke. It was like the entire range of American processed food product.

One of my favorite restaurants in NY was vegan (Angelica Kitchen) so I know how tasty it can be, I just don't think I could be the one making it day in day out.

Oh how I adore that place. It is so very good. I had eaten there several times before I realized it was vegan and not merely vegetarian.

I don't think any particular reading choice could necessarily motivate a breakup for me, however proselytizing about it might be able to. I'd regard Dianetics and The Watchtower as reasons to be watchful, at any rate.

I knew a woman who learned English by having conversations with various proseletyzers. I found this very clever of her -- people coming over to the house to teach her English! For free!

I've had enough crappy relationships that if I had a good one with a food or music or literary challenge I'd pretty cheerfully find some way to make it work.

There was a woman in line behind me at the grocery store today buying a package of Hostess cupcakes, a big bag of beef jerky, and a Coke.

she forgot the squirty cheese

There's a restaurant here in DC that has weekend morning brunches with both vegan and omnivorous options. I usually go there with my parents when they visit -- I can get the awesome scrambled tofu rancheros, and my dad can get something he can pronounce. (My mom usually gets the scrambled tofu -- she tried some off my plate once and decided she liked it better than eggs.)

Oh! Bringing together the vegan and the junk food topics: the new Doritos flavor is vegan! Sweet Chili flavor, or something like that. I haven't tried it yet. And there's plenty of vegan junk food out there already, but mmm. Doritos.

I think that cooking a vegan meal would be an enjoyable challenge, i mean, it certainly wouldn't stop me from inviting a vegan to dinner.

first, certain kinds of meat cooking (like bacon) just smell disgusting,

Yeah, the last time I was in Vegas with my girls, some of us were in the process of cooking and eating a pound of bacon when one of the vegetarians came down begging us to open the door to dissipate the smell. We were like "????" but I guess I can see it being nasty.

Cooking meals with various restrictions seems limiting at first, but after a while, you barely think about it. (Just glancing in my kitchen now to come up with meals for the week, I've got noodles with seitan and peanut sauce, cauliflower-lentil curry, tofu-watercress stirfry, black bean chili with cornbread, and split pea soup. And that's just from a vague sort of "What can I see from my couch or remember I have in the fridge?" I think the noodles with seitan and the tofu-watercress stirfry will be the stuff I actually make -- the first because it uses up stuff I can't use on Passover, and the second because that watercress is going to get gooey if I don't use it in the next day or two.)

I know more than a couple vegans who are just fine with dating meat eaters.

And I've had plenty of delicious vegan food.