mmm... ginger pear waffles taste better in heart-shapes

Happy Valentine's everybody!

I wish I had time to make more heart-shaped food, some part of me loves a useless holiday that embraces little more than a funny symbol. Hehe. When I was in high school I used to treat it kind of like Halloween for softies, and dress up in pink and white taffeta and striped red stockings and give out chocolates to my friends and anyone in the halls who looked like they wouldn't be offended by an overly friendly "happy valentines!!" and a little dark chocolate square. Today I don't have time, and I don't know how amenable the militantly awkward art school kids would be towards pure fluff and hallmark celebration (maybe they would get the irony?). So I'm off to paint two brazilian men kissing, and then I'll buy pecans for the smlove so I can make a big wonderful pie for my family when I go home for reading week tomorrow.

On an unrelated note: I listen to CBC radio every morning while eating my breakfast (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and this is the second day in a row that they've had an extensive discussion on veganism! Yesterday they hosted Rory Friedman (the author of Skinny Bitch), and then a reaction interview with Debbie Rasmusen (the publisher of Portland's Bitch Magazine) and Annahid Dashgaardt (the Executive Director of Anima Leadership, a Toronto-based organization dedicated to community building). I'm not the biggest fan of the Skinny Bitch book, but there were some interesting points brought up - like the fact that the information on farming and animal rights in the book is actually somewhat sound, and that it's the first mainstream piece of vegan literature to be embraced in popular culture. I can't wait to hear what they talk about today. I do have to say... Rory kind of rubbed me the wrong way in how she almost greasily sidestepped direct questions about the so-called "healthiness" of the diet proposed in the book (it's a diet book! IT IS A DIET BOOK! and not a good one). And Debbie and Annahid thankfully made a strong argument for healthy body image and rejection of (even vegan) fad diets. Ideal solution being intelligent integration of the information offered in the book and ignoration of the idea that we all stand around hating the thinnest girl in the room? Could take a lot more social change than we'll see in our lifetimes...
They even brought up the racism factor - by flat-out demonizing meat and cheese, the book is creating guilt on a cultural front, too! Oh god, I hope I'm not getting preachy. Ha ha ha. Does it help that I don't know exactly where I stand with all this and so really can't be preaching at all? It was interesting to listen to, I know that.

I propose a day in the garden and a rainbow-bright spread of veggies and grains for alllll the skinny bitches (people of all sizes and temperaments) of the world. Or maybe a square of dark chocolate and a flurry of fuschia lace. La la la la! This bitch is off to go paint...