Shrove Tuesday: The Hardest Things to Give Up for Lent

by Jordan Yerman | February 16, 2010 at 09:20 am
6484 views | 13 Recommendations | 5 comments

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A Good Cup of Coffee Can make All The Difference!

A Good Cup of Coffee Can make All The Difference!

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Today is Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday), which means that Ash Wednesday arrives tomorrow, and thus begins the forty days of Lent. In the past, Lent was vegetarian-only, and fasting was required: only one full meal (and maybe two smaller meals) per day. In modern times, though, Lent is more of a voluntary thing, with participants giving up favorite foods and drink, or committing to works of charity and volunteerism. So, what would be the hardest things to give up for Lent?

My guesses would be:

  • Animal products. Even if you're cool with six bacon-less weeks, it's pretty hard to be 100% sure that you're not consuming something that came from a living thing that once blinked. Did you know that the fluid that cleans beer taps contains animal products? Draught beer is not vegan. Speaking of which...
  • Alcohol. This would be rough. No beer, no wine, fine. No whiskey? Now we're getting into difficult territory. What about stuff like rum cake? How about cooking with wine, when the alcohol is burned off?
  • Coffee. If you work at a startup, you'd be toast in about two hours. This one's pretty much fuhgeddaboudit. It's not just the caffeine, but coffee culture. The scream of the espresso machine. The steamed milk. The warm cup on a winter's day.
  • Chocolate. Easy enough during the day, but what about at birthday parties? It's bad luck not to have a piece of cake, or so I've been told. What about late at night, when you've had a crappy day?
  • Fast food. This would be incredibly easy, unless you define fast food as anything pre-made at an eating establishment. What about pizza by the slice? In Vancouver, where our pizza-by-the-slice is dreadful, that's not too hard, but what about San Franciscans? Chicagoans? New Yorkers? You can appreciate how difficult this would be.
  • Television. The Olympics are on. Can you really miss the curling? The skier-cross? If you can make it past the first two weeks of Lent, this would be easy, since only Tuesday nights (Lost) would be tough... but you wouldn't make it past the first two weeks.
  • The Internet. Hahahaha! Yeah, right.

What would you just not be able to give up for Lent?

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Dave Lieberman

Glad I was able to inspire you... would have been nice to have a shoutout, maybe a linkback though. I assume you found my post through Digg? (the bit about the two hours was down in the comments on the Digg post, you see)blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/five-great/the-five-hardest-foods-to-give/digg.com/d31Iu3tI'd e-mail you if I could, but since I don't exactly feel like joining a site to send you a message...

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DanGarion

Wow talk about total plagiarism.  Why don't you try writing your own articles next time Jordan...

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Tomitheos Linardos

great info, I like the internet one you included ;)  made me smile

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QueerInMySoup.com

Jordan ... que t'es un vrai putain de salopard!! ... stop ripping off people articles w/o credit!

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PennyPay

I would never attempt to give up soda. I might last a day at most. I give up chocolate, which isn't too bad because other kinds of sweets will tide me over. Then on Easter I get the ecstacy of sinking my teeth into a Cadbury Creme Egg...

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