Really Weird

I'm a pesco-vegetarian (Dr. Weil's phrase, not mine) but when the carnivores in my life and the holiday demand it, I am willing and able to cook, if not eat, meat. So today I took myself to the Reading Terminal Market, source of all good things in Philadelphia, to order my brisket for Rosh Hashanah dinner. (If anyone's interested in my brisket recipe which I can truthfully, if not modestly, say has won acclaim far and wide, give me a holler. In brief, it's amalgam of Julia Child and my mom, both distinguished cooks.)

After placing my order at Harry Ochs, I ran into my ex computer techie seated at a nook next to the meat counter. Now, I always knew he was weird--kind of goes with the territory of techno geek. For one thing, everytime I saw him, no matter how inclement or cold the weather, he would be wearing industrial strength sandals and shorts. Today was no exception.

I stopped to say hello and then suddenly noticed what he was eating. Spread before him on a piece of butcher wrap was at least a half pound of bright red, raw, ground beef accompanied by a stack of bright orange American cheese slices. While we chatted briefly he would roll a healthy serving of meat in a slice of cheese and pop it down the hatch. Yuck!!

Thank god I had already eaten.