Food for Thought

Food for Thought 8/12/10

We were sharing a long communal table at a tiny Mexican restaurant near the beach. The Mexicans came to Long Island and made good. The food used to be cheap. $1 for a  taco. Prices have gone up. It cost us about $15 each for lunch. Still a bargain. It was one of those situations where eavesdropping is expected. What I overheard was not. A couple of nice young women were chowing down, while leafing through a directory for the area; The Hamptons, famous for the famous. One of the girls was reciting from the tourist guide, “Personal gourmet chef for your dog.”

I cringed. I am a dog lover with 2 dogs who eat (brace yourself) dog food. “No!” I heard my own involuntary cry, as if my dog was stealing a T-bone from under my nose. “That can’t be true.”

In a time when people are jobless – nice, decent, hard-working people are showing up at food pantries to feed their families, let alone the nice, decent homeless who have no choice. I feel utterly embarrassed and disgusted with a system that has allowed, indeed encouraged this to happen.

I an sure many (can there be many?) who treat their dogs to personal chefs also give to the hungry. But honestly…I don’t know about your dogs, but I can tell you that my dogs will eat just about any crap they can sink their teeth into. And that’s no bullshit.