Tuesday 24 August 2010

Today's Non-Story




Mark Boyle (pictured) is a man who advertises himself as 'the man who gave up money'.

He's 31, lives in a caravan which is parked at an organic farm near Bristol where he volunteers three days a week, according to the article. The caravan was free from a website.

He growns his own food, has a wood-burning stove and produces electricity from a solar panel, which cost £360 before his money-less experiment started. His mobile phone is set to incoming calls only and he has a solar powered laptop.

Mr Boyle has been vegan for the past six years.

I am single at the moment, but because of the book and my blog a few women seem interested in me. Just being a vegan cuts down the number of women I’m compatible with, never mind being moneyless. I’ll be lucky if there’s one woman in the whole country who wants to give up cash for life – and I might not even fancy her.

Lucky her. Any woman taking on such a man seriously needs to consider a couple of things. She'll be the one paying for all the phone calls. What's he going to do with the money from his book? Give it to charity? Then of course there's the quality of air in confined spaces. Only another vegan could ignore vegan emissions.

Is Mr Boyle a dreamboat, greenboat or a fairly accomplished self-publicist (showboat)? I'd choose the latter. He's not 'volunteering'. He's trading his skills for food and ground rent. Many of us trade goods or skills. I'm shortly going to have an abundance of apples and plums - far too much for me to use - so I give them to friends. These friends have kept me in cabbage, tomatoes, beans and other tasty homegrown vegetables for the past few months. No money changes hands. Nothing unusual there.

The article doesn't say how Mr Boyle earned his living before he decided to live in this manner. What is certain is he had the money to buy a laptop and a solar panel. Something tells me the man has contacts in the media. Many authors would love the opportunity to have an article in a newspaper about their first/latest book, yet few are chosen. Mr Boyle is part of 'the chosen few'. Maybe the writer hasn't mentioned it because he/she's not interested either.

A non-story from the Telegraph and one which is very poorly researched.

Just a thought - why is it all vegans I've met have pasty complexions? I've yet to meet one with rosy cheeks. Surely they eat apples. My granny used to say apples gave you rosy cheeks. Now, in my maturer years, I realise her homemade parsnip wine, along with apples, possibly helped her acquire her healthy glow.


19 comments:

Dramfineday said...

Wasn't Adolf Hitler a vegan? (Relax just a little Dram wind up)

I used to visit a health food shop here in nearly tram city and I've never met such a bunch of greetin and torn faced types. Not a very good advert for the lifestyle!

Overthing in moderation, including the good and bad stuff

Munguin said...

No Hitler was a vegetarian not a vegan I believe there is a difference. He was also a teetotal animal lover. Dinners in his bunker were to be avoided.

subrosa said...

I think Hitler is recorded as vegetarian Dram. Ah I see Munguin knows.

It's right about moderation. I have to have one fish supper a year to show me what real indigestion is like.

Dioclese said...

What this guy doesn't realise is that money was introduced as a medium of exchange to replace barter. If you do a days work in response for vegetables, then strictly speaking the vegetables are a medium of exchange and therefore, in effect, money.

Money was, of course, invented because telephone boxes only take sprouts and this is a nuisance when you only have a cabbage...

Joe Public said...

"...why is it all vegans ... have pasty complexions? I've yet to meet one with rosy cheeks. ..."

So he's SubRosy, eh?

wv 'oucha'

Dean MacKinnon-Thomson said...

Hitler was known to eat meat, he was no veggie or vegan ... and for anyone who doubts me you just ask Stephen Fry on QI!

Gods, Subrosa, you have managed to get me to strongly dislike this particular person .. I mean, what a nonsense story. Your damn right.

subrosa said...

But Dean, I'm sure you're happy you're not a female vegan with a disregard for our usual exchange of sterling.

subrosa said...

Auch Dioclese, you nearly made me spill my Tio Pepe.

subrosa said...

Definitely sub-rosy these folks Joe. Clever of you though. :)

love the WF. One many would want I'm sure.

subrosa said...

It's a daft story right enough but, with the bloke's contacts, he's managed to get himself into the mainstream media.

That's why I think it's a non-story. But of course somehow he has contacts Dean.

Dean MacKinnon-Thomson said...

It is always the same frankly, this is a very unfair world.

Idiots like this gent is able to get into the mainstream media...

Your right enough.

subrosa said...

Thank you for the compliment Dean. I wouldn't be upset if you disagreed though. :)

McGonagall said...

My wife was microbiotic for a while then went vegetarian. My kids were all vegetarian when they were wee - one still is. They'd sit down to their miso soup and aduki bean pie and I'd have a steak - drippin red - oh aye.

(Like mah new moniker?)

subrosa said...

Love yer new moniker. :)

There's a big difference between vegetarian and vegan though. A well thought out veggie diet is fine but vegan is so restricted.

I seldom eat meat but I'm no vegetarian.

You were lucky. Some vegetarians I know just won't allow meat to be cooked in their kitchen.

ukipwebmaster said...

"Then of course there's the quality of air in confined spaces. Only another vegan could ignore vegan emissions"
RAOTFL!

ukipwebmaster said...

"Then of course there's the quality of air in confined spaces. Only another vegan could ignore vegan emissions"
RAOTFL!

subrosa said...

Glad I made you laugh ukip, but it's true isn't it?

adelaide girl said...

Go the vegans. The less dead animal eaters the better. And talking of money or should i say fiat currency , just see how conned we are to it's value. Lots of information on U TUBE.

subrosa said...

I'd have to disagree with you adelaide girl. Aren't fruits etc dead once their roots are moved? Nothing growns once it leaves the soil/host plant. They begin to rot.

I'm all for barter though. It happens here with fruit and veg during the summer months.

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