Years ago, while I was a first-year graduate student at Harvard, a young vegetarian schoolteacher tried her darnedest to persuade a young Maynard S. Clark to go vegetarian in the tradition of Frances Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet.

At a local church where I worked, we had a "Gather Inn" for professional adults. I was in charge, and we did international dinners prepared in the church kitchen by volunteers. Conversations ensued, and the international 'dining in' at cost (of food/materials) made a great social event in harvard Square.

Two 20-something vegetarian women (one lacto-vegetarian and one ovo-vegetarian) worked on me (one more than the other), and their meals together worked out to be dietary vegan meals.

August 14th is the birthdate of the one who worked most diligently on me.

She moved away from Boston, but her birthdate is recalled every year because 'way back then' I went vegetarian - then vegan.

So that's why August 14th is a VERY SPECIAL DAY for Maynard S. Clark.

Oh, yes: she worked on me in other ways, too, trying to change me.

"You're too formal!"
"Why do you always wear a sport coat and dress slacks?"
"I'm a nonjoiner. why do you have affiliation issues?"
etc.

So now I'm overly casual, seldom wear a sport coat or suit, and don't belong to any churches at all. I'm not sure that I changed for the better; except for my going vegetarian then vegan, I think I was a better person in those days, but that's yet another issue.

Maynard