Yes, that’s one thing I’ve come to understand about my dad only over the last couple years, how very simple he was, and how complex at the same time. I think he was a simple man with simple tastes: he liked goofy movies and good simple food and wanted his family to be well and be happy, and enjoyed walks and nice meals and holding hands, but he was also a complex man who did amazing work. years, and for me it’s been cathartic to learn about it all.
I started to organize some papers in the office and found a piece I thought you might like that dad wrote for Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management in September 1978, when I was four months old. I think Janeen will like it because dad sounds so bad-ass: “I succeeded in reaching a long-time goal by the age of 26, and I did it without experience or financial backing for the first years of publication.” #paulobis #lewybodydementia #vegetariantimes.www.paulobis.com
I don’t think my dad entered Ribfest as a stunt: he honestly loved my mom’s seitan ribs and didn’t see why they couldn’t be entered alongside all the pork ribs. The story captures some of my favorite Paul Obis qualities: his intrepid spirit, common sense, and earnestness.
Oct 1991, another veggie celebrity: Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. I love the warmth and earnestness of this piece. They could have opted for a vampy, sexy photo shoot full of puns, but no, there’s Cassandra Peterson in a PETA T-shirt, talking about animal rights.
Famous vegetarians named in this issue: Michael Stipe, Cesar Chavez, Isaac Singer, Alice Coltrane, Hal Ashby, Phylicia Rashad, William Shatner, Carl Weathers, Kate Bush, Ray and Dave Davies, and Mister Rogers.
In 1988, after I had cried at my friend’s birthday party because they only served meat burgers, my dad attended a vegetarian soiree in LA and brought me along across country because he knew my idol River Phoenix would be there, and I shook his hand and forgot all about burgers. That’s the kind of person my dad is.
I don’t think my dad entered Ribfest as a stunt: he honestly loved my mom’s seitan ribs and didn’t see why they couldn’t be entered alongside all the pork ribs. The story captures some of my favorite Paul Obis qualities: his intrepid spirit, common sense, and earnestness.
Nick Obis said his father loved the nooks and crannies of Chicago, introducing his kids to ethnic grocery stores, charming barber shops and off-the-beaten-path oddities.
In 1986 my dad asked Chicago Tribune’s Mike Royko if he could enter my mom’s seitan “ribs” into his annual RibFest. Royko replied, “Your request is denied. … If everybody started eating ribss made from wheat gluten, our society would soon be overrun by all the surplus pigs.”
My five brothers and more or less got along growing up. I babysat a lot. But we weren’t a real rowdy bunch. We were pretty well-behaved kids. We always liked movies; we always liked music. We had our own kind of clique thing that you get in a large family—like when people would come over, you speak this whole language, and you start to build this little wall that other people find impenetrable. So when we’re all together, it’s all movie references and Simpsons jokes and music references, and whatever other crap we grew up with.
We had a good, large family. A little bit hippie. My dad founded Vegetarian Times magazine, so we grew up in a vegetarian household. We were raised on peanut butter that you’d have to stir with a stick, homemade meals—all vegetarian, very natural foods.
Obis had started a couple of small publications, including a pamphlet on celebrity vegetarians, before launching Vegetarian Times from his apartment in Oak Park, said his son Nicholas.
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Yes, that’s one thing I’ve come to understand about my dad only over the last couple years, how very simple he was, and how complex at the same time. I think he was a simple man with simple tastes: he liked goofy movies and good simple food and wanted his family to be well and be happy, and enjoyed walks and nice meals and holding hands, but he was also a complex man who did amazing work. years, and for me it’s been cathartic to learn about it all.
I started to organize some papers in the office and found a piece I thought you might like that dad wrote for Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management in September 1978, when I was four months old. I think Janeen will like it because dad sounds so bad-ass: “I succeeded in reaching a long-time goal by the age of 26, and I did it without experience or financial backing for the first years of publication.” #paulobis #lewybodydementia #vegetariantimes.www.paulobis.com
Your post is a beautiful tribute to you Dad who seemed like an awesome guy
I don’t think my dad entered Ribfest as a stunt: he honestly loved my mom’s seitan ribs and didn’t see why they couldn’t be entered alongside all the pork ribs. The story captures some of my favorite Paul Obis qualities: his intrepid spirit, common sense, and earnestness.
Oct 1991, another veggie celebrity: Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. I love the warmth and earnestness of this piece. They could have opted for a vampy, sexy photo shoot full of puns, but no, there’s Cassandra Peterson in a PETA T-shirt, talking about animal rights.
Famous vegetarians named in this issue: Michael Stipe, Cesar Chavez, Isaac Singer, Alice Coltrane, Hal Ashby, Phylicia Rashad, William Shatner, Carl Weathers, Kate Bush, Ray and Dave Davies, and Mister Rogers.
In 1988, after I had cried at my friend’s birthday party because they only served meat burgers, my dad attended a vegetarian soiree in LA and brought me along across country because he knew my idol River Phoenix would be there, and I shook his hand and forgot all about burgers. That’s the kind of person my dad is.
I don’t think my dad entered Ribfest as a stunt: he honestly loved my mom’s seitan ribs and didn’t see why they couldn’t be entered alongside all the pork ribs. The story captures some of my favorite Paul Obis qualities: his intrepid spirit, common sense, and earnestness.
Nick Obis said his father loved the nooks and crannies of Chicago, introducing his kids to ethnic grocery stores, charming barber shops and off-the-beaten-path oddities.
In 1986 my dad asked Chicago Tribune’s Mike Royko if he could enter my mom’s seitan “ribs” into his annual RibFest. Royko replied, “Your request is denied. … If everybody started eating ribss made from wheat gluten, our society would soon be overrun by all the surplus pigs.”
My five brothers and more or less got along growing up. I babysat a lot. But we weren’t a real rowdy bunch. We were pretty well-behaved kids. We always liked movies; we always liked music. We had our own kind of clique thing that you get in a large family—like when people would come over, you speak this whole language, and you start to build this little wall that other people find impenetrable. So when we’re all together, it’s all movie references and Simpsons jokes and music references, and whatever other crap we grew up with.
We had a good, large family. A little bit hippie. My dad founded Vegetarian Times magazine, so we grew up in a vegetarian household. We were raised on peanut butter that you’d have to stir with a stick, homemade meals—all vegetarian, very natural foods.
Obis had started a couple of small publications, including a pamphlet on celebrity vegetarians, before launching Vegetarian Times from his apartment in Oak Park, said his son Nicholas.