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Carrion Luggage
Carrion Luggage
 
Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem.
This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it.
It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans.
It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier."
I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination.
November 14, 2025 at 9:33am November 14, 2025 at 9:33am
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You know, I've been riffing off things I find online for, what, 20 years now? Something like that. It's rare that I find one that I don't have to be skeptical, cynical, or outright critical of. But today... today is that wonderful, glorious day when I send my inner skeptic, cynic, and critic on vacation to the beach (they'll hate it) and present to you an article from The Takeout which is, as far as I'm concerned, absolutely true.
This. This is what science is for.
Few things go with hot pizza better than a cold beer.
No need to be weaselly about it. Nothing goes with hot pizza better than cold beer. (On the flip side, there is nothing worse than cold pizza and hot beer.)
Tart tomato sauce, creamy cheese, and chewy crust, along with the effervescence of beer, is a satisfying comfort meal for sporting events, parties, and date nights.
As I don't do sporting events, parties, or dates, it's more of a "when I feel like it" thing.
Pizza and beer pair so well in flavor thanks to a few scientific factors having to do with contrasting and complementary chemical components.
"I'm going to need to drink this beer with this pizza... for SCIENCE."
Science even shows that the combo itself could be good for you.
Yeah, right. Dammit, I told you guys to take a hike today.
There's a reason why beer is used in so many recipes, and it has to do with yeast.
Another reason to drink real beer and not the mass-produced American pisswater.
A 2023 study by Nutrients found that beer boosts the biodiversity of the microbiota in your gut, possibly strengthening digestion long term.
Yep, I'm just going to accept this as Truth.
As for pizza, it's packed with vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin C and calcium.
When I was a kid, we didn't have food pyramids; we had the Four Basic Food Groups. While we told each other that these were "caffeine, nicotine, sugar and alcohol," they were, I think: milk, meat, fruits/veggies, and grains. These guidelines were obviously written by the agriculture industry. You will note that pizza can contain all four of these essential foods, making it the absolute most perfect food in the universe.
Throw pizza and beer together, and you end up with a nutrient-rich food and a health-boosting drink that work together to partially cancel out each other's negative effects.
Sorcery!
At the very core of the matter is the fact that, scientifically, beer and pizza just have amazingly complementary flavors.
And look, in the end, that's what truly matters to me, health benefits or not. No point living longer if you don't do the things that make life worth living.
Lastly, pizza and beer's synergy has a lot to do with the company you keep. A 2019 study out of Japan shows that food and drinks taste better when you're with people you like.
Huh. "People I like." What a concept. Oh, go back to the beach. |
© Copyright 2025 Robert Waltz (UN: cathartes02 at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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