“The Amish continue to abuse animals. Why is this allowed? It’s been going on for years.  It’s not ok for the Amish to abuse animals continually. They are uncaring freaks!
I’m calling the police!” – Becky 

My response, which is not my usual style,  was a pleasure. Perhaps social media is degrading me, or perhaps it’s teaching me how to feel good. I’m sorry for adding to the rancor of the times but not very:

“Becky, please blow it out your ass. I wonder why bigots and liars like you are allowed to spout your slanderous garbage. Of course, it’s been going on for years, and no one has figured out how to stop people like you. I think you are credible to me when it comes to writing about uncaring freaks and creeps. And I have a question for you. If you have incriminating information about the Amish, why are you sending me creepy messages instead of the police? Go away and don’t return, you are knocking on the wrong door. Best, Jon.”

Wow, that felt good, perhaps it’s the last of the anesthesia. A part of me wants to apologize for being vulgar, and another part wants to dance out in the road. No regrets. I read the response to Maria and she practically applauded.

I have to thank friend and former student Julz Irion for this.

She has a terrific food and personal blog named Julzie Style   which I highly recommend. She and her husband Martin have singlehandedly created a booming Vermont food called the Vermont Spatzle Company,  rapidly spreading through the Northeast.

As a fierce Gluten-free advocate, Julz launched the company by making a gluten-free and healthy version of the German noodle Spetzal. Julz has changed my life as a cook with her blog, I’ve taken at least a dozen recipes from her, including my Cauliflower Pizza.

She knows food and writes about it with feeling and authority, and her recipes are simple and understandable. Being a Gluten-free fanatic, she also offers a lot of healthy food. She is well known for being outspoken and willful.

She sometimes has a potty mouth too.

I love Julz’s writing, it is, as a good blog should be, full of life and feeling and ideas. I feel connected to her writing, sometimes you want to kill her and sometimes you want to take her home wrapped in a sausage.

Sound familiar? I like to joke that Julz is me before all those years of therapy.

She is a food genius, and her blog is full of writing ideas, recipes, all mixed up with rants, memories, indignities, loves, and complaints.

She writes often,  as much or more than I do, and runs a busy company as well. She has me hooked. It’s an unusual morning that I don’t read something from her blog to Maria at breakfast.

Aside from building a runaway food company mostly by herself, Julz is a character. She is a belly dancing veteran who works with Maria in her belly dancing group and is a gentle and patient teacher. Belly dancing is perfect for Julz – she dares anyone to open their mouths about it.

She is a former Jersey girl which accounts for her take-no-prisoners writing style.

She often suggests that people who annoy or offend her blow it out her ass, an endearment she learned on the Jersey shore when she was young.  Jersey girls are known for their attitude, you mess with them at your peril.

I went to high school for two years in Atlantic City and I remember a teacher telling our class to blow it out of her ass because we were lazy.

My parents, both born and raised in New England, were horrified, but the teacher didn’t back down. And we all thought she had a point. The class got to work.

A few months ago, I  was mentoring Julz in blog writing when she started her young and already successful blog and I urged her to ease up on the cursing and Jersey shore insults. But she ignored me – it’s a part of her – and today, I found myself copying her style for the first time on my blog and it felt great.

Becky is a bigot, and it is honoring God to insult bigots. She sent me yet another obnoxious and hateful message- I’ve gotten scores – calling the Amish uncaring freaks and promising to call the police to complain about them. I’ve gotten a lot of them, a curse on them all. I’ve heard some of them have grown three heads.

I had a difficult day yesterday and was in no mood for bigots and liars, the country is infected with them and sometimes I just want to throw up when I hear from them.

I should say that the Amish I know do not treat their animals poorly and do not deserve to be labeled in this thoughtless and vicious way. Becky, it was a pleasure to tell you to blow your bullshit right out of your ass.

I’m ready if you give me another chance to do it again.

And thank you, Julz, for reminding me to be me.