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WHILST SUMMARIZING THE latest Great American Meatout (“Meat Cleavers,” The District Line, 3/24), Matt Labash subscribes to the American way of all- or-none, either/or, winning-is-everything form of polarized thinking.
This American way of thinking, highly pronounced in TV ads, encourages steak/animal, muscle/meat main courses five to six days a week, two or three times a day from the time one has permanent teeth. And the same thought process equates not winning the Super Bowl with having a stinker of a team. Of course, we don’t care who the opposition was (Dallas Cowboys at least twice, the Washington Redskins in their dream year), you just lost, negating the tremendous struggle of most of your games and the last three straight just for the opportunity to get to the show.
But this rigid dichotomy doesn’t exist in my life. The prevailing perception is that one can be only vegetarian/vegan or meat-eater. Now, breaking that stereotype is my reality. I am vegetarian 350 days a year, meat-eater 12 days (once a month), and both, 3-4 days. I enjoy simple salads, lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, some frozen vegetables, and frozen fruit as dessert. I do eat turkey slices on occasion to satisfy my meat appetite. Oh yes, Matt, please remember to add in all the potentially productive years of life lost to clogged arteries, high blood pressure, and obesity. There are no Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, or NBA championships for those folks, just 6 feet of earth and maybe a plaque.
Labash be damned, the performance-based results are conclusive: You haven’t fielded any sort of Super Bowl team in your whole life. I’ll take Marv Levy any day of the week.
College Park, Md.