I like to watch Oprah. Not the Phil Donahue-like ones (showing my age there), but about half of her shows I find entertaining. Oprah comes on at 4 pm here in Philly. No, I am not usually home at that time, but I TiVo them. As an aside - TiVo is the greatest thing EVER. Not only do I get to watch shows that I would otherwise never get to see, but it is much easier than setting a VCR and I can fast forward through all the commercials.
Saturday morning is my catch up on Oprah time. If I am not working, I get up - walk down the street for coffee and a bagel or scone and curl up on my couch to watch a little Oprah. This past Saturday I had to round in the morning, but I curled up on my couch around noon. A lot of recent shows have been about the economy and how to be more frugal. I know she is incredibly smart, but Suzy Orman bugs be for some reason. Again I digress.
There was an episode on last week, I am not sure which day, with Lucy Liu. The episode was about the raising of farm animals. Now, most of you know that I grew up on a pseudo farm. We had the occasional cow, pig, chicken, duck, or goat. I by no means romanticize farming, but I do have a certain world view about it. Most of you also know that I refuse to eat veal. It all started MANY years ago when I read that veal calves are raised in a small box so that they reach a certain size. The idea bothered me. The Oprah show was about some new proposition that is on the California ballot this year talking about increasing the mandatory size of cages for chickens, hogs and calves.
Lucy went to a compare and contrast farm with each animal. There was a free range cow farm vs a "factory farm", etc. etc. I had difficulty watching the pictures of 700 pregnant sows in small cages that didn't even permit them to lie down. I am not sure why I can't stand to see animal suffering - especially since I see human suffering every day, but it has always bothered me. I refuse to watch Animal Planet because it always makes me cry. I finished the episode, and moved on to Live Friday on Oprah. Where strangely Halle Berry spent a huge amount of time talking about orgasms. I tried not to give much thought to the "farm" episode.
Saturday night I decided that I would walk downtown for dinner. I headed off down the street and could find nothing I wanted. The hamburger place made me recall the cows in boxes, the bar-b-cue place (yes they have them here, but they are bad) flashed me to the sows, etc etc. I finally settled on a vegetarian salad. No big deal, but now it is Tuesday and I still can't bring myself to eat meat. Luckily for me I have bought cage free eggs for a couple years - mostly because they have extra Omega-3 fat which Gail and Martindale drilled into me was good.
I don't think I want to be a vegetarian, and I don't think I could be vegan. I truly love a good juicy cheeseburger. I would just like to enjoy it again. I already had to worry whether or not the cow had received antibiotics, steroids or growth hormones. Now I also have to worry whether or not he got to walk around or was forced to stand it one place inside a box for his entire life. I am not sure I like being an educated consumer. Naive consumerism was much less stressful. I think I need to swear off Oprah for awhile.
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