When good vegetarians go blotto, join the club
[from tampabay.com] perhaps the only thing I've read in a while that's made me laugh out loud...
When good vegetarians go blotto, join the club
By Gina Vivinetto
The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom
-- William Blake (poet, vegetarian)
The recent news that actor Joaquin Phoenix , one of the world's most famous vegetarians, has begun alcohol rehabilitation prompts me to break a confidence about a group I helped spearhead. Phoenix and other high-profile vegetarians, including his brother, actor River Phoenix, who died of a drug overdose in 1994, and starlet (and PETA spokesperson) Pamela Anderson, who in Jane this month confesses past drug use, draw criticism to those who forgo meat. That's why I want the world to know of Vegetarians Who Are Sometimes Sober, a group I co-founded in my teens with the late poet Allen Ginsberg, who, I point out, though an advocate of mind-altering drugs, died in 1997 of natural causes.
Some propose a correlation between a vegetarian diet and too much drink or drug use. Nonsense!
VWASS is a veritable who's-who in the worlds of arts, letters and television sitcom. We meet weekly for nutritious vegan dinners. Members have fun, share recipes and discussion, help each other live a cruelty-free lifestyle, and on occasion, spend entire evenings not getting s---faced drunk.
For instance, at our potluck for fellow vegetarian Mary Tyler Moore after her stint at the Betty Ford Clinic, we celebrated with a light tofu cheesecake (leaving out the vanilla extract), and hardly anyone drank until they puked. Same thing on the night little Kelly Osbourne came back after her rehab stint. (Perhaps Osbourne was influenced to go veg -- or go wild -- by her daddy's vegan bandmates in Black Sabbath, Terry "Geezer" Butler and Bill Ward.)
We were inspired by the heroism of Terminator 2's Edward Furlong, arrested last year in a Kentucky grocery store for trying to free lobsters from a tank. Furlong was intoxicated, sure -- this following a 2001 DUI arrest. Even then, our vegetarian brother knew all species are born free! Woody Harrelson is a VWASS member, often bringing his raw food dishes filled with hemp seeds. Harrelson chats up Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, a fellow pot advocate. At their table you'll find Paul McCartney, famously arrested for pot possession at that Tokyo airport in 1980, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Lenny Kravitz, Lisa Bonet. George Harrison sat with them, before he died.
Rap mogul Russell Simmons and designer wife Kimora Lee Simmons are proponents of a healthy, vegetarian lifestyle. That's why when Kimora got busted last year for DUI and possession of marijuana, she looked radiant in her prison mug shots. Before Jerry Garcia died of his overdose, he and the other Grateful Dead veggies, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh entertained us with long, trippy jams. Other meatless, clean-living 1960s folks in our group such as Grace Slick, Bob Dylan and the artist Peter Max loved it. Paul Newman comes every once in a while. We gobble all the Fig Newmans he and lovely Joanne Woodward bring. Except Paul, who brags that he drinks 24 beers a day, doesn't eat much. Some in our group like to try to match him, beer for beer, including Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes , former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and, goodness, that wild Shane McGowan of the Pogues. And Larry Hagman once upon a time. Nobody outside VWASS realizes Major Tony Nelson is a vegetarian. He got more attention for the cirrhosis and the liver transplant. Which reminds me, television star Brett Butler drops by -- when she's lucid.
So, you see, not all vegetarians compensate for a lack of meat in their diet by consuming too much drug and drink. Some in our group live squeaky clean lives: Fred Rogers, of television's Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, who came each week until he passed away; the late Gandhi was always up for good, clean fun; and our friend John Tesh, who might still be alive -- who can tell from week to week?
Also, in light of recent events, VWASS is more sensitive to those struggling with addiction. We've asked our fellow vegetarian Jesus Christ, who has been so diligent, turning fishes into loaves, at every function, if, at our next potluck, he might refrain from turning the water into wine.
-- Gina Vivinetto gina@tampabay.com "
When good vegetarians go blotto, join the club
By Gina Vivinetto
The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom
-- William Blake (poet, vegetarian)
The recent news that actor Joaquin Phoenix , one of the world's most famous vegetarians, has begun alcohol rehabilitation prompts me to break a confidence about a group I helped spearhead. Phoenix and other high-profile vegetarians, including his brother, actor River Phoenix, who died of a drug overdose in 1994, and starlet (and PETA spokesperson) Pamela Anderson, who in Jane this month confesses past drug use, draw criticism to those who forgo meat. That's why I want the world to know of Vegetarians Who Are Sometimes Sober, a group I co-founded in my teens with the late poet Allen Ginsberg, who, I point out, though an advocate of mind-altering drugs, died in 1997 of natural causes.
Some propose a correlation between a vegetarian diet and too much drink or drug use. Nonsense!
VWASS is a veritable who's-who in the worlds of arts, letters and television sitcom. We meet weekly for nutritious vegan dinners. Members have fun, share recipes and discussion, help each other live a cruelty-free lifestyle, and on occasion, spend entire evenings not getting s---faced drunk.
For instance, at our potluck for fellow vegetarian Mary Tyler Moore after her stint at the Betty Ford Clinic, we celebrated with a light tofu cheesecake (leaving out the vanilla extract), and hardly anyone drank until they puked. Same thing on the night little Kelly Osbourne came back after her rehab stint. (Perhaps Osbourne was influenced to go veg -- or go wild -- by her daddy's vegan bandmates in Black Sabbath, Terry "Geezer" Butler and Bill Ward.)
We were inspired by the heroism of Terminator 2's Edward Furlong, arrested last year in a Kentucky grocery store for trying to free lobsters from a tank. Furlong was intoxicated, sure -- this following a 2001 DUI arrest. Even then, our vegetarian brother knew all species are born free! Woody Harrelson is a VWASS member, often bringing his raw food dishes filled with hemp seeds. Harrelson chats up Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, a fellow pot advocate. At their table you'll find Paul McCartney, famously arrested for pot possession at that Tokyo airport in 1980, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Lenny Kravitz, Lisa Bonet. George Harrison sat with them, before he died.
Rap mogul Russell Simmons and designer wife Kimora Lee Simmons are proponents of a healthy, vegetarian lifestyle. That's why when Kimora got busted last year for DUI and possession of marijuana, she looked radiant in her prison mug shots. Before Jerry Garcia died of his overdose, he and the other Grateful Dead veggies, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh entertained us with long, trippy jams. Other meatless, clean-living 1960s folks in our group such as Grace Slick, Bob Dylan and the artist Peter Max loved it. Paul Newman comes every once in a while. We gobble all the Fig Newmans he and lovely Joanne Woodward bring. Except Paul, who brags that he drinks 24 beers a day, doesn't eat much. Some in our group like to try to match him, beer for beer, including Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes , former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and, goodness, that wild Shane McGowan of the Pogues. And Larry Hagman once upon a time. Nobody outside VWASS realizes Major Tony Nelson is a vegetarian. He got more attention for the cirrhosis and the liver transplant. Which reminds me, television star Brett Butler drops by -- when she's lucid.
So, you see, not all vegetarians compensate for a lack of meat in their diet by consuming too much drug and drink. Some in our group live squeaky clean lives: Fred Rogers, of television's Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, who came each week until he passed away; the late Gandhi was always up for good, clean fun; and our friend John Tesh, who might still be alive -- who can tell from week to week?
Also, in light of recent events, VWASS is more sensitive to those struggling with addiction. We've asked our fellow vegetarian Jesus Christ, who has been so diligent, turning fishes into loaves, at every function, if, at our next potluck, he might refrain from turning the water into wine.
-- Gina Vivinetto gina@tampabay.com "
posted by hellkittennyc at 9:54 AM
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