You are what you eat and I'm a real fun guy.

It's important to me to learn something new every day, to keep the sparks firing in the synapses of my gray matter. Generally speaking, these sparks wind up being useless tidbits of knowledge that result in me not being invited to many parties.

Because I'm annoyingly inquisitive by nature, and because I still view veganism as, well, WRONG, as I ate my free bagel this morning, I decided to do a little research. The Vegan Society defines veganism as such:

"[T]he word "veganism" denotes a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practical — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals."

I really was thinking about what constitutes the simple breakdown of Animal/Vegetable/Mineral, and was curious about where yeast fell into that simplest of categorization. Yeast is related to mold and mushrooms, and apparently a biological gray area. They fall somewhere between plants and animals, but to me, anything that can turn my white cheese blue, or raise my baguette, or produce alcohol in my beer and wine, is not a stoic little plant. These individual little organisms give their lives to the production of good eating and drinking, and isn't that animalian? I think so.

I declare, therefore, in my little corner of the world, that henceforth, vegans don't get pennicillin or beer.