So, where to do draw your line? Cattle, pig, fowl, is OK but what about dog? Cat? Horse? Roadkill?

Your anecdotal observations about vegans is just that, anecdotal. But, I’ve heard most of those defensive before like those who told me that raising my kids are vegetarians would stunt their growth and make the cognitively deficient. Since one is a software engineer for a major tech company (think of a type of fruit) and the other is in autonomous vehicle tech and boot are well-over 6’ tall, one at 6’7”, I guess those predictions didn’t pan out. For myself, I trained for and the Duluth marathon on a vegan diet in my mid-50s and did it in 4-1/2 hours. I’ve often wondered why meat eaters get so defensive when someone says they exclude meat from their diet? If someone excludes broccoli, I doubt they get the same feedback from the broccoli lobby.

I fully understand why some see the newer meat alternatives as unsavory. I do as well and I’ve been a vegetarian (mostly vegan) for over 40 years. My “yuck factor” is that I don’t want something that tastes like meat. To me, meat is a piece of a corpse, a cadaver, and I don’t want something akin to that. And, no, I am not one of those preachy vegetarians. I could care less what you you choose to eat and I fully “get” the joke about “How do you tell if someone is a vegetarian? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.” That so much of the world lives on a vegetarian diet, due to culture or economic considerations, leaves me with a wide range of cooking options and, as the cook of our household, we experience a broader food experience than those who choose to subsist on meat and potatoes.

I see quite few references to cassettes but for many there was LOTS of copying going on for 15 years prior to the invention of the audio cassette by Philips. I have hundreds of reels of tape, some made out of paper, dating to the late-1940s with off-the-air recordings of music and copies of 78s and LPs. The cassette added convenience and a lower entry price to something that was already underway.

As a long time (I start Medicare this year) low-fi audiophile, I wanted to bring up a couple points on the topic. Cassettes are not always used as a source for music. Many of us are into recordings of the spoken word and cassettes have always had enough fidelity for that. I've been a collector of radio programs (anything from the 1920s to present) for many years and cassettes (and reel-to-reel) have been well-suited to that hobby. That said, yes, I am digitizing my collections for both backup and random-access purposes but I still do use my cassette playing equipment (Nakamichi and Sony) for casual listening. Regarding 8-track tapes, yes, they were really the best solution for the automobile application in their day. But I would like to mention they had a competing format, the 4-track cartridge. The technology was similar to the 8-track except that, unlike the 8-track cartridge with contained the pinch roller, in 4-tracks the pinch roller was in the player and inserted itself into an opening in the bottom of the cartridge when it was placed into the player. Also, the 4-track and only 2 program selections as opposed to the 8-track's 4. I have a working combination 4- and 8-track player by Muntz mounted under dash in my 1959 Volvo. BTW, one can still buy belts for these players and repair parts (foil splicing tape, pressure pads, etc.) for the cartridges.