<story><title>Gluten Free Antarctica</title><url>https://idlewords.com/2018/12/gluten_free_antarctica.htm</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nradov</author><text>One of my colleagues is a vegetarian. He went on a business trip to Texas and his associates took him out for dinner at a steak house. After reading the menu he asked the waitress, &amp;quot;Do you have anything that isn&amp;#x27;t meat?&amp;quot; She thought for a moment and cheerfully replied &amp;quot;We have chicken!&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>wanderfowl</author><text>As a vegetarian (by ethical choice, not medical necessity), I do my best not to lose sight of the simple fact that &lt;i&gt;I&amp;#x27;m&lt;/i&gt; the problem here.  When I walk into a steakhouse with my carnivorous wife, they&amp;#x27;re helping me out by finding something to put in my stomach.  If I&amp;#x27;m on a camping trip, I&amp;#x27;m bringing my own food, or doing my best to make it fair to folks who are helping me out. And if I&amp;#x27;m visiting for dinner, I try to make it clear that I&amp;#x27;m happy to scavenge sides, you don&amp;#x27;t need to do something special for me.  Because, again, my self-made diet choices are not your problem, but mine.&lt;p&gt;Celiac is real, folks who have it should be cut a break, and in my experience, folks who actually &lt;i&gt;cannot&lt;/i&gt; eat gluten are just trying to make things work, rather than being a dick about it.&lt;p&gt;But deeply screw people like this lady who make a voluntary diet choice who use it as an excuse to bully others and make people cater to them.  They trivialize people&amp;#x27;s actual medical needs, breed a culture of &amp;quot;Yeah, sure lady, there&amp;#x27;s no gluten&amp;quot;, work against whatever cause they&amp;#x27;re in favor of, and largely, they&amp;#x27;re why we can&amp;#x27;t have nice things.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>themodelplumber</author><text>That is funny. I had a kind of opposite experience, when I was struggling with a bad reaction to gluten. My wife and I went to a burger joint in Utah called &amp;quot;Mooyah&amp;quot; where I ordered a burger on a gluten-free bun. As soon as those words left my mouth, the cashier asked, &amp;quot;allergy or preference?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Stunned and wondering if I was being criticized, I said &amp;quot;allergy&amp;quot; only to learn that if you say that, they have to clean all possible traces of gluten off of their equipment before they make your burger.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Allergy!&amp;quot; Then the action started. As I watched two employees vigorously wipe down all this stuff just to make one burger, I felt alternately shocked, amazed, well-served, and embarrassed. Others in the restaurant looked at me like I was from another planet.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, that was one of the best gluten-free buns I&amp;#x27;ve ever tasted.</text></comment>
<story><title>Gluten Free Antarctica</title><url>https://idlewords.com/2018/12/gluten_free_antarctica.htm</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nradov</author><text>One of my colleagues is a vegetarian. He went on a business trip to Texas and his associates took him out for dinner at a steak house. After reading the menu he asked the waitress, &amp;quot;Do you have anything that isn&amp;#x27;t meat?&amp;quot; She thought for a moment and cheerfully replied &amp;quot;We have chicken!&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>wanderfowl</author><text>As a vegetarian (by ethical choice, not medical necessity), I do my best not to lose sight of the simple fact that &lt;i&gt;I&amp;#x27;m&lt;/i&gt; the problem here.  When I walk into a steakhouse with my carnivorous wife, they&amp;#x27;re helping me out by finding something to put in my stomach.  If I&amp;#x27;m on a camping trip, I&amp;#x27;m bringing my own food, or doing my best to make it fair to folks who are helping me out. And if I&amp;#x27;m visiting for dinner, I try to make it clear that I&amp;#x27;m happy to scavenge sides, you don&amp;#x27;t need to do something special for me.  Because, again, my self-made diet choices are not your problem, but mine.&lt;p&gt;Celiac is real, folks who have it should be cut a break, and in my experience, folks who actually &lt;i&gt;cannot&lt;/i&gt; eat gluten are just trying to make things work, rather than being a dick about it.&lt;p&gt;But deeply screw people like this lady who make a voluntary diet choice who use it as an excuse to bully others and make people cater to them.  They trivialize people&amp;#x27;s actual medical needs, breed a culture of &amp;quot;Yeah, sure lady, there&amp;#x27;s no gluten&amp;quot;, work against whatever cause they&amp;#x27;re in favor of, and largely, they&amp;#x27;re why we can&amp;#x27;t have nice things.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>throwmeback</author><text>In a certain episode[1] of a Polish TV dating show, one of the contestants said their favourite fish is a fillet &amp;quot;because you can buy it anywhere&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=yS3gsxAkBDk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=yS3gsxAkBDk&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>