Call me Ishmael
The answer to last Sunday morning’s quiz. Starbucks takes its name (in part) from the first mate of the Pequod, Captain Ahab’s whaling vessel in Moby Dick. One of the three founders wanted to call the business Pequod, until his partners pointed out that the pronunciation might not be right for a hot beverage enterprise, so they came up with a compromise. (Yes, it’s also attributed [in part] to a mountain camp called Starbo, on Mount Rainier; I acknowledge that to deter nit-picking.)
All of which leads me to a story this morning that Japan has suspended its annual Antarctic whale hunt, because of the activities of a campaign group called the Sea Shepherds. Nice name, but don’t they know what happens to most lambs? That said, cynically, we must acknowledge that there is a global instinctive aversion to whale-hunting and that most Herman Melville readers were firmly on the side of the great white whale. Me too. I’m against it, for much the same reasons that I’m against cannibalism. Because of that I now restrict my own diet. I’m too old/lack the moral courage (you choose) to go completely vegan, but it’s a long time since I had a steak, and baby sheep are absolutely not an option, not even bhuna fashion. My wife is less scrupulous than I am, but she hasn’t touched suckling pig since I pointed out that she was eating Winnie the Pooh’s little mate.
Where do I not draw the line? Shark, swordfish, monkfish are all okay by me for consumption; they would eat me if they could, so game on.
Quintin Jardine's blog 
I’ve sort of gradually become almost vegetarian – mainly because of the cost of meat and the fact that I love Quorn, for some bizarre reason. I’m allergic to fish, so that’s out. I do have a weakness for the odd bacon sarnie though and the veggie versions just don’t hit the spot.
I’ve used the term, but I suspect that vegetarian is on of the things you can’t be ‘almost’.