What's up with The New York Times' editorial pages?

Did The New York Times' editorial pages really print false information? Look at this fake letter supposedly written by the mayor of Paris. Why is that not surprising? Look at what the Times' editorial pages said about vegans. The nation's best newspaper has tremendous journalistic standards in its news sections, but on its editorial pages, it seems to print whatever it can get its hands on.

'Tis the season, you know

I probably shouldn't be disappointed, but I can't help it. My work put on a Christmas lunch for everyone, and I got my hopes up for a second. The bosses got pasta, pizza and salad. Guess who the salad without dressing was for? I may be a vegan, but I'm not a big fan of iceberg lettuce with red cabbage and tomatoes and no dressing. How boring. The sad thing is they know I'm a vegan, but I was not consulted. By experience, I knew that would happen, so I knew to bring a lunch. I could have guided them to getting a chesseless pizza from Papa Johns with all of the vegetable toppings. Now, that would have been more up my alley. Shucks. I did get a very nice gift from our administrative assistant: a vegetarian cookbook. Well, it wasn't all bad. I can't wait to make our Christmas tamales.

Should Vegans Boycott Olive Garden?

For years, I had been going to Olive Garden with my family in a variety of cities. I knew that I could at least get whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce on it. And, my family was willing to go. So, it was a compromise that didn't make me upset. It never occurred to me that what I was eating might not be vegan at all. Here is what the Olive Garden website says:

Which menu selections are vegetarian?
A few of our menu items can be adjusted to accommodate a vegan or vegetarian diet, but none wholly meet the criteria. Depending on your personal philosophy, we can suggest the following items as meatless, but not necessarily vegetarian or vegan:

Minestrone soup (vegetable and mushroom base; no meat protein)
Garden Salad (without dressing)
Marinara Sauce (mushroom base; no meat protein)
Capellini Pomodoro
Eggplant Parmigiana
Fettuccine Alfredo

It is interesting to me that they say that vegetarians and vegans can be accommodated, but then it says none of their menu items "wholly meet the criteria." To me, that means, nothing is vegetarian or vegan. It makes me think of the food scientists in "Fast Food Nation" adding flavorings made of meat products. That's what McDonald's did when they stopped frying their French fries in beef tallow. To keep the same flavor, they simply added essence of beef fat into the fries. I wonder what sort of crazy experimentation Olive Garden is up to, but as far as I am concerned, they can keep their meals created in laboratories to themselves. They do not cook authentic Italian food, and I will never trust them again.