Herr Fleishman, der Fleisch ißt

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September 11, 2006

Herr Fleishman, der Fleisch ißt

That's a German pun in the headline.

When I was in a graphic design program in Brissago (Ticino), Switzerland, back in 1989, for several weeks over a summer, we stayed in two hotels owned by the Ferrari family, a lovely group of people. (One set of rooms was a "garni," sort of a B&B hotel; the other a hotel with a certified pergola, which served breakfast to guests and had a dinner.)

Mama Ferrari, a 4' 10" woman with some command of English (and excellent command of several other languages), and a superb sense of humor, was talking to me one day and couldn't recall my last name. We were speaking, I think, in German. I said, "Herr Fleishman." Since I was a vegetarian, she laughed, and said, "Herr Fleishman, der kein Fleisch ißt."

(The joke is that Fleishman as Fleischmann is literally "meat man," like a butcher. Metzger is the actual German word in High German for butcher, but nonetheless, Fleischmann might have been the Yiddish word. So I'm a meat-man, right? The word "ist" is "is" in German, but the third-person of "essen," to eat, is spelled ißt (isst), and pronounced the same way. So the pun is, Mr. Meat Man who who (does not eat/is not made of) meat. Ha! Okay, that took too long.)

As of a few weeks, ago ich esse Fleisch. Yup, I'm a carnivore again. (I was only a vegetarian for a couple years; I've been largely a pescetarian since 1990.)

I read Omnivore's Dilemma and went on a metabolic cleanse with Lynn. The book led me to understand how you could eat meat in a sustainable, even productive way, with humane treatment for the animals; the metabolic cleanse made me crave meat like I haven't in 18 years. The rise in concern about the toxins in fish have been part of this motivation, too. Eating the right kind of meat is probably better from a heavy metals, pesticide, and general perspective than eating most fish.

After some fits and starts, I started with chicken, liked it, moved onto turkey and ham, and then...hamburgers. The trick here is that I want to eat meat that isn't raised unpleasantly, isn't full of antibiotics, and where the cows are being fed grass, not grain. Since I live in Seattle, this is available and affordable. Lynn and I just signed up for a meat CSA, and we'll be receiving 1/8 cow, I believe, from yesterday (our first pickup) until June.

I have always believed our bodies will tell us what to eat, and mine is saying meat. I've never been an anti-meat vegetarian; death is a part of our lives, and raising animals for slaughter can be done in a way that respects the animal, our ecosystem, and ourselves. I'm back at the top of the food chain.

Posted by Glennf at September 11, 2006 11:36 AM

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Comments

You forgot to explain why he had ketchup: Paul would put ketchup on his plain spaghetti!! Also, he would get a plate of these wafers that were typically stuck into ice cream for dessert.

Posted by: Glenn Fleishman at January 24, 2010 1:18 PM

Memories of Brissago's "Mama"

I also attended the Yale Summer Program, in 1986 while a graphic design student at the U of Arts in Philadelphia. Four of my classmates also attended the program. My friend and I got one of the better rooms at Mama's hotel (a bath tub and large window overlooking the lake). At breakfast, she learned I liked the gorgonzola cheese, and made certain I had it special every morning. About Paul Rand, she made sure he had his bottle of ketchup at the dinner table every evening. (He was very American.) She said, "Mr. Rand never eats soup!"

Posted by: Tony at January 24, 2010 10:35 AM

I just spent a week in Montana and part of that trip was eating well at nice restaurants. I love fish, especially salmon, and I swear every night they had some wonderful sounding salmon... but each time the waitress asked me my choice a little voice in my head said "You are in Montana, eat the BEEF!"

I have to say, that voice was dead on correct. Mmmmmmm.

Posted by: chuck goolsbee at September 12, 2006 12:25 PM

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