I hereby declare myself a carnivore who sometimes eats vegetables.

I have to agree with your irritation. That's why I don't describe myself as a vegetarian. I eat meat occasionally, but generally don't. The main reasons why I do, when I do, are 1) because I am eating at someone's house (or other social event) and I didn't want to make them go to the extra effort of making something meatless, and 2) because sometimes I get a hankerin' for dead-animal flesh (like the amazing must-have-just-been-killed fried chicken that I had in Costa Rica). In my book, this means that I am not a vegetarian.

And don't get me started on "flexitarian." I heard that word a month or two ago and it hasn't gotten any less stupid in the interim.

That was the first time I'd heard of it--it just sounds like a way to make people feel special or something. I am an omnivore--I eat what I want while trying to minimize the bad stuff and eat more of the good stuff.

The closest I have ever been to vegetarian was when I was married, and even then I ate chicken and fish pretty regularly.

"I'm a vegetarian who sometimes eats meat" kinda reminds me of the classic line from Reality Bites: "I'm a non-practicing virgin!"

I'm a tee-totaler who loves to drink beer!

(although last night it was Jack Daniels who joined us all in the hot tub, and he is a bad, bad man)

I don't eat vegetables, vegetables are what food eats.

Thanks for posting this. I used to work with the guy who wrote this at the Concord, NH Associated Press offices. He was one of these vegetarians who was always acting like some sort of martyr because he didn't eat meat. "Oh, I'm so tired because of my diet" "Oh, I can never eat out, because of my diet." Now, I have been a vegetarian for more than a decade. I don't care what anyone else eats. But it is so terribly annoying when these people who love the IDEA of being vegetarian act like it is impossible to just SHUT UP and be a vegetarian. It's what you eat, it's not an f'ng conversation piece. Then because they can't take responsibility for their own inability to follow through on the diet, they act like it's impossible and come up with a term for it. I've heard vegans use the term freegan for when they meat or dairy products they got free of charge. If you take responsibility for nothing else in your life, take responsibility for the labels you put on yourself.

Amen, Shawn. A-effin'-men!

Yes, very nicely said.

Does this work with marriage as well?

I am a committed husband, except for occasionally when I am sleeping with other women.

What do you think my wife would think about that?

I don't know her well, but I'm guessing she would have some serious issues with that...

Shad: Ask her.

I have really tried to understand people who don't eat meat, but it's just one of those things that truly eludes me.

I mean how can someone resist the smell of a delicious steak grilling? Or bar-b-que ribs? Or grilled salmon? Or shrimp shishkabobs? An herbed roasted chicken? I am sorry, but tofu, beans, and almonds (no matter how you mix 'em) can't touch the beasts of the field, foul of the air, and the scales of sea and stream over hot coals (coals while more carcinogenic produce better flavor- gonna die sometime, so may as well savor your food).

Where did she say that she's a vegetarian? She said "sometimes I feel like..." She even goes on to qualify that statement by adding "but I'm just not 100 percent committed."

I do agree that the headline is a bit misleading but take it for what it is. Why get torqued over symantics? These people, myself included, know that they're not vegetarians. We don't feel better because of some label. We feel better because we like to think we're eating better. That's all.

No, what she said was "sometimes I feel like I'm a bad vegetarian." Which is true. She's a crappy vegetarian.

It would be like proclaiming to the world that you feel like, maybe, you're a bad husband because you like to, ahem, eat out once in a while. Then, in the next breath, you would be defending yourself because you really like the taste of something new on occasion. It's okay, though, because you can come up with a new label for yourself: a fleximarriagian--married people who screw around on the side. Know what I mean?

As I said, if people (or the article) said that they were eating less meat for health reasons or ethical reasons or whatever, it would have been no irritant to me at all. That's not completely what it's about though.

In the end it really doesn't matter to me all that much--but I don't like people proclaiming to be something that they absolutely are not.

Thanks for the comment.

You're missing the point. She's NOT a vegetarian. Nor is she claiming to be one. So, ascribing her with the label "crappy vegetarian" has no merit. That's like saying a gazelle is a lousy carnivore or George Bush is a terrible environmentalist. On the otherhand, if I use your husband analogy, he can't escape that he truly is a husband. But see, she's not a vegetarian - disciplined or not. And you're completely ignoring her statement that she's "...not 100% committed."