Vegans

At Karen Dawn's Thanksgiving feast, there will be yams and stuffing with cranberries and a dessert of pumpkin-pecan pie, all set out on a table for eight. And there will be turkeys, two of them actually -- Emily and Bruce (or possibly Brucilla -- it's a little unclear). The two 20-pounders will have most of the privileges of Dawn's other sentient guests -- a Pacific Palisades patio, a view of the ocean and vegetarian nibbles.

For lunch in her modest apartment, Madeline Nelson tossed a salad made with shaved carrots and lettuce she dug out of a Whole Foods dumpster. She flavored the dressing with miso powder she found in a trash bag on a curb in Chinatown. She baked bread made with yeast plucked from the garbage of a Middle Eastern grocery store. Nelson is a former corporate executive who can afford to dine at four-star restaurants. But she prefers turning garbage into gourmet meals without spending a cent.

Re "Give the little ones a break," editorial, Nov. 26 Your editorial is part of the problem, not the solution. You wrote, "Claremont parents angry about the pageant can be forgiven for wanting their children to understand the real story of North America's colonization and conquest, but kindergarten might be a trifle early for the full grisly truth." "Forgiven" for wanting their children and others to know the truth? Wow. Are you arguing that there is no age-appropriate way of teaching young children historical truth, and that therefore half-truths masquerading as fun are proper substitutes?

Vegetarians who follow a raw-food diet have lower bone density than those who consume a more typical American diet, researchers have found. But those bones might not be weak. Risk of fracture is linked to bone density and bone turnover -- a measure of how fast a bone breaks down and reforms. According to the new study, raw-food vegans often have a bone density low enough to be diagnosed with the bone disease osteoporosis, but show normal levels of two markers for bone turnover.

Is your car vegan? Actor Michael Bell's is. The 66-year-old Encino resident doesn't eat or wear animal products, and his hybrid car doesn't have a stitch of leather in it. If it had, Bell said, he wouldn't have bought the car, a 2001 Toyota Prius, despite its impeccable green credentials. In raw numbers, vegans such as Bell are so few that they barely register on surveys of consumer habits.

For telephone company Chief Executive Norm Mason, a vegan and lifelong animal lover, there was never any doubt what he'd offer at his company cafeteria. Soy steaks and soy sloppy joes, veggie burgers, nachos and other meatless, eggless, butter-free delicacies are cooked daily using heavy bags of texturized vegetable protein. If that doesn't sound so great, consider this: It's all free.

A judge refused to order a New York City jail to serve vegan meals to three Jewish inmates who claim the diet is part of their faith. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that the Rikers Island jail had not caused the inmates the "irreparable harm" required to grant their request. Vegans avoid all animal-based foods. The inmates said non-vegan diets conflict with Jewish mandates to preserve the welfare of animals.