Paper Thin Walls

Things That Astound Me ...

I’m a man of somewhat simple pleasures. Shiny objects don’t astound me. Pretty lights don’t affect me. But put me in an airport and I’ll watch planes take off and land for hours like a little kid. I marvel at the ability to take pictures and record video with a digital camera. And I love — love! — the way science can recreate any taste and incorporate it into a jellybean.

So begins this new regular feature where I ruminate on the wonders of modern science and technology — from a layman’s perspective. The idea for this feature came last night after a phone call from a long-time friend.

“Hey man, what’re you doin’?”

“Just eating dinner,” I said.

The son of a meat processing plant owner, my friend, a meatarian for life, was intrigued by what a vegan would eat for dinner. So he asked.

“A baked potato with some soy sour cream and bacon bits and some broccoli,” I replied.

“Wait, you can eat bacon bits,” he asked, astounded and with a slight chuckle. “Don’t they have bacon in them?”

“Yup, one of the many wonders of science. The Bac-O's Bacon Flavor Bits taste like bacon, but they’re not. They’re delicious.”

And they are. My venture into veganism started out as an experiment. I had been a vegetarian for a few years prior, when I made The Leap. I’ve stuck with it because, quite simply, it’s not that hard. At least not as hard as I thought it would be. And part of that I owe to Bac-O's, an oasis in the world of veganism.