# Dragonfly98, if anyone has been just beggin for a pitting, it's you **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 8, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905 "2003-08-08T20:48:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/101 "2003-08-12T20:28:46Z")
Yeah, I’ve got to agree that it doesn’t make much sense for someone living in a van (down by the river or not) and buying organic, vegan food. It’s just not very smart. Although the brain power of this particular poster is noticably low, you’d think even someone of _his_ intelligence could see that. I don’t even buy organic because I can’t afford the shit because much of my food is more expensive than “regular” food, I’ve got to make some compromises. There’s actually a lot of cheap vegan food out there, a lot of things you wouldn’t even think are vegan, are. ---
**Author:** ![viking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@viking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/viking)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/102 "2003-08-12T22:07:02Z")
Then again, if your priorities are that you spend your money on organic food rather than rent and end up living in a van by the river, then hey, I gotta respect your committment to the cause. We could argue about whether organic standards necessarily improve animal well-being (There may well be cases where the two goals conflict), but that’s not the point here. Also, and I’m not saying that this is the case here, but are there not places where well-paid professionals live in vans by the river not because they have no money, but because there simply are no apartments to be had for love or money? Not that I want to defend this dude after he called me his bitch, but let’s be fair even if it is the pit… [angrily chews **dragonfly** ’s slippers into a fluffy mess. that’ll show him] ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/103 "2003-08-12T22:38:19Z")
Places where well-paid professionals live in vans by the river? Are you serious? ---
**Author:** ![HerMajestyLorna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/7cd45c/32.png) [@HerMajestyLorna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HerMajestyLorna)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/104 "2003-08-12T22:48:08Z")
> [@](#): > > 5 years @ 3 meals/day ~= 1825. > 30/1825 ~= 1.6% > > …so in the past six years approximately 98.4% of my meals have been vegetarian. In other words only 1.6% of my meals were the flesh of dead animals. The rest mostly grains, legumes and vegetables. How about you?? Well, since you ask: 7 years of vegetarianism 365 days a year 3 meals a day 0 meals with meat/poultry/fish 7765 meals with no meat/poultry/fish. (If my calculations are correct) So, now…am I superior to you? Am I superior to people who do eat meat? Yeah, I didn’t think so. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![viking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@viking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/viking)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/105 "2003-08-12T23:06:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lezlers \* > \*\*Places where well-paid professionals live in vans by the river? Are you serious? \*\* Well, maybe this is based on half-remembered news reports from the height of the dot-com boom when everyone and their dog was a highly paid professional in silicon valley and the house-building just wasn’t keeping up… But if you drop the well-paid professionals bit, then certainly resort towns like Whistler have chronic shortages of housing for employees of the resorts, so you do have ``working homeless’’ and have reasonably well-off ski bums living in the VW van. Again, I don’t have a specific reference, but it does come up in the news from time to time… And of course resort employees are not exactly highly-paid, but if there are more employees than housing, you could have homeless (or seriously overcrowded) situations yet have enough income to buy organic food and pay for a domain, etc. ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/106 "2003-08-12T23:11:40Z")
Hmm. I guess so. I was living in the Silicon Valley during the [dot.com](http://dot.com) boom and there were no well paid executives living in vans, I can say that much. Hotels, maybe, while thier houses were being built, but not vans. As for resort employees, are you talking about seasonal employees? If so, I can see that because it’s short term. But to live in a van as your permanent residence for any significant amount of time voluntarily seems a bit odd to me. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/107 "2003-08-12T23:14:51Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by lezlers_ > But to live in a van as your permanent residence for any significant amount of time voluntarily seems a bit odd to me. Depends on the van, I guess. I’ve seen a few that were pretty pimped out. Enough so that the distinction between “van” and “mobile home” was more than a little blurry. ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/108 "2003-08-12T23:34:18Z")
Dude, how pimped out can a van possibly be? I don’t mean to come off as discriminating or anything (step back Offenderati, BACK!) but it’s a _van_. A tour of the place would take about 10 seconds, tops. I mean, I guess there could be a hot plate. I’d be _very_ curious about the bathroom facilities… ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/109 "2003-08-12T23:46:57Z")
Hey, I feel the same way about trailer homes. I can’t understand why anyone would choose to live in one if they weren’t in the direst of financial straits. A van does not sound like a considerable step down to me. However, I figure this is a result not of some sort of defect in the other person, but my own inability to comprehend the beautiful mosaic that is all the manifold expressions of human exsistence. Incidentally, the great thing about the internet is you don’t need to have a good poker face. ---
**Author:** ![viking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@viking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/viking)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/110 "2003-08-13T00:27:44Z")
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the granola pot-head hemp-wearing material-posessions-renouncing seasonal-working organic-vegan-eating ski-bum earth-mother drifter lifestyle is not for me, but hey, if someone else wants to add van-living to the list, then more power to them 🙂 (not that I’m saying any or all of those apply to our dear little friend (well, except organic-vegan-eating), but at least it is, to me, a plausible list to add van-living to that does not necessarily imply total destitution…) ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/111 "2003-08-13T01:38:43Z")
HIJACK **Miller** : A van doesn’t sound like a step down from a trailer home? Have you ever been _inside_ a trailer home? I grew up in a double-wide, full-length trailer that was twice the size of my best friend’s _house_. We both found it incredibly amusing that I was looked down on and she was not, simply because her house had concrete under it. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/112 "2003-08-13T01:42:35Z")
> [@](#): > > originally posted by viking, bolding mine > granola pot-head hemp-wearing material-posessions-renouncing seasonal-working **organic-vegan-eating** ski-bum earth-mother drifter lifestyle Whoa, I thought the guy was a vegetarian, not a cannibal. ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/113 "2003-08-13T01:54:16Z")
Heh. Well, I wouldn’t think twice about it if there was some sort of bathroom facilities and maybe a sink or something. But it’s a _van_. Any “home” that has an empty Big Gulp as the bathroom aint a home damn nabbit! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/114 "2003-08-13T02:06:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by racinchikki \* > \*\*HIJACK > **Miller** : A van doesn’t sound like a step down from a trailer home? > > Have you ever been _inside_ a trailer home? > > I grew up in a double-wide, full-length trailer that was twice the size of my best friend’s _house_. We both found it incredibly amusing that I was looked down on and she was not, simply because her house had concrete under it. \*\* Yes, I have. Double-wide, even. Dammit, a house isn’t supposed to have _wheels_ on it! That’s just fundamentally wrong. _Vehicles_ have wheels, houses don’t, and never the twain shall meet. Mind you, I spent the first ten years of my life growing up in a warehouse. My fundamental concept of “home” includes twelve-inch think concrete walls and a steel door. This may have somewhat skewed my perceptions on housing. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/115 "2003-08-13T02:08:36Z")
We took the wheels off ours, put nice skirting on it, and used the crawl space as storage. Plus to try to hook it to a truck and move it would’ve required uprooting several trees and pulling out our landscaping and cutting off the decks, so I never really considered the house mobile… ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/116 "2003-08-13T02:24:02Z")
Well… I bet it still had _axles_! So there! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![imthjckaz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/imthjckaz/32/3223_2.png) [@imthjckaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imthjckaz)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/117 "2003-08-13T02:56:22Z")
**Miller** , are you threatening her?! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![KarmaComa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e36b37/32.png) [@KarmaComa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarmaComa)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/118 "2003-08-13T04:51:47Z")
This has turned into a major yawnfest. \*\* yawn \*\* But even if it hadn’t, everything that everyone is saying is totally meaningless. The preceding was a parody of dragonfly, the greatest postmodern debater the board has ever seen! ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/119 "2003-08-13T04:57:44Z")
Hey, I’M a vegan so MY opinions matter. The rest of you subhumans can bite me. HA! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905/120 "2003-08-13T05:38:31Z")
At least I’m not in danger of being eaten by some hippie who lives in a van down by the river, **lezlers**! So HA HA ON YOU! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dragonfly98-if-anyone-has-been-just-beggin-for-a-pitting-its-you/193905.md?page=7)