Taking Things to Extremes

I remember when the first “Rocky” movie came out and then the second one and then the third one … and then I stopped paying attention. Well, one was really enough, wasn’t it? So, here I am with my 3rd installment of Random Thoughts. Some sequels improve on the original. Sadly most don’t. I’m hoping my efforts fall into the former category.

For the most part, I try to middle-of-the-road it most days (as hard as that might be to believe). I’ve never considered extreme anything to be all that healthy. But I just can’t seem to help doing these Random Thoughts thingies (I have several more all lined up and ready to go). There are just so many random thoughts flitting through my head that they are hard to ignore.

Take Milk for Instance

Most people probably don’t give milk a second thought. But I do. And a third and a fourth. I’m talking about cow’s milk and not that soy or rice or oat or almond stuff that substitutes for it. Why do people drink cow’s milk? It’s really not intended for people. Its ingredients are designed to nourish a calf and help it to grow up quickly so that it can move with the herd.

To make it “healthier” for humans, much if not all of the fat is removed. Sometimes Acidophilus is added to make it easier for humans to digest. Some humans can’t digest the lactose at all and need lactase in order to drink it and eat cheese or yogurt or ice cream. So why even use cow’s milk in anything? Well, okay, those soy cheeses don’t really melt even if the package assures you that it will. But I’ve had some really tasty soygurts and Rice Dream “ice cream” is nice once or twice a year (kind of a lot of sodium and oil in there, though).

I don’t have anything against those rice and soy and nut substitutes except that they put a lot of salt into them and I don’t do salt. So when I eat cereal (which isn’t all that often because it is hard to find any that have not had salt added to them or that don’t have wheat or corn in them somewhere), I eat it dry. Nothing wrong with that.

As far as I’m concerned, the only milk humans should drink is human milk. Now … let’s think about that for a while. Imagine how it might be produced commercially. How it might be marketed. Or maybe not.

What’s Your Beef

While I’m on the subject of cows, here’s a little something that occupies my mind from time to time. Well, okay, maybe more often than I might like to admit.

People eat sheep and they call it lamb. That makes a certain amount of sense because young sheep are called lambs. People eat chicken and turkey and duck and that’s what they call it. People eat fish. So why don’t people eat cow? And for that matter, why don’t people eat pig? And where did the whole “veal” thing come from?

Every now and then when I am looking a cow in the face I wonder how I can eat a part of it. I don’t eat pig at all for a number of reasons; none of them religious. I just don’t think it’s all that smart. And besides, they are supposed to be very close to us in how they function. That’s why so many biology labs use fetal pigs to teach the rudiments of human anatomy. And I’ve known a pot-bellied pig that was an absolute delight to be around. So how could I eat a pig? I have the same problem with bunnies.

I’d be a vegetarian if I could reliably digest legumes. Luckily eggs don’t give me any trouble. I eat a lot of eggs. Eggs don’t stare back at me with big, sad, brown eyes. They don’t have soft, fuzzy foreheads begging to be scratched or cute little ears.

So can anyone tell me where the saying “what’s your beef” came from and why using beef that way seems to mean that something is wrong or not right? Busy minds, minds that won’t shut up, minds that just keep prattling on and on and on want to know.

Getting Eggxactly what you Want

I don’t know about you, but I don’t very often get exactly what I want. Of course, it would help if someone would please tell me what I want. Just kidding. I don’t really want anyone telling me what I should and shouldn’t want. But it sure would be nice to know.

People are always telling me I shouldn’t eat so many eggs. But really, they aren’t all that high in cholesterol and they have all sorts of wonderful and essential nutrients. After all, everything you need to make a chicken (except for the oxygen which gets in through the shell) is right there inside the egg. And they are really tasty and can be fixed all sorts of ways.

Where we get into trouble is if we eat eggs for breakfast, some ground up cow on a bun for lunch, and a slab of pig for dinner. Now that’s a lot of cholesterol. And even fish and fowl have it as well. But if your lunch is eggs and that’s your only animal protein for the day, then don’t worry. I for one will eat my eggs eggxactly as often as I please.

Things I have Learned

Your dog doesn’t like it when you spend too much time at the computer and don’t make her lunch on time.

Even a cat will lose patience after a while and will finally stop meowing and leave the room when you are typing and totally ignoring her.

If you ever get to taking yourself too seriously, you should go and spend some time with a dog or a cat. They have a way of letting you know what is actually important.

And finally, consider this …

Photos courtesy of Jon Rennie, Southern Living, ASPCA, Britannica and ScoopWhoop respectively