Hi all, I attended a portion of the SF LiFE expo yesterday. I was amazed by the number of people, and by how mainstream they looked! Hopefully the movement is really becoming mainstream. The high point was Tom Billing's talk (that and meeting the gorgeous Marjatta!). I held my breath as Tom delivered a no-holds-barred critique of fringe diets, pitfalls, associated mental problems, etc. to a packed audience. But the audience was really very receptive. It was gratifying when the audience cheered when Tom lashed out at the rawist hate groups. When Tom finished his talk and said "any questions?" the audience just gave him a standing ovation and charged the podium for questions and handouts. The low point was that Lovin'Live was a no show. Col. Bazarkeley was nowhere to be seen. The toxic trio seemed pretty nice in person though. I enquired and looked for somebody that might match the Colonel's description: an older gentleman with a crazed look, wearing combat boots, fatigues and a bayonet, mumbling to himself about disemboweling the next instincto :-) I did find one who almost matched, sans the boots, fatigues and bayonet, but it turned out to be Ric :-) Anyway, an "associate" of the trio told me that the Col was not expected to attend. Oh well. Maybe another time. Things were still pretty entertaining without him. I attended David Wolfe's talk which turned out to be like the book: a collage of motivational sayings from different sources ("raw food for the brain"). A member of the audience commented that he had been vegan for several years with a consequent deterioration in general health until he added RAF to his diet. David was rather subdued in his response that he had no point of reference to comment on this, since he hadn't eaten RAF in years. But he couldn't resist adding "but many of my friends have tried and had really bad results." Was this questioner a ringer? (Kirt, was it you? fess up! :-) :-)) Hope LiFE does this more often, and I hope we can arrange a "special interest group" or "birds of a feather" meeting to get acquainted in person the next time. As an aside, remember the NFL claim that Tom Billings was "a scrawny little guy with big bumps on his head"? Well, it turned out that Tom is a six-footer with the physique of an olympic gymnast and a grip to match: a picture of outstanding health. Didn't see any bumps on his forehead either. Ah well. Another NFL claim down the toilet :-( Regards, Roy