We were sent recently a flyer from Whole Foods: their "Thanksgiving Menu." It provided an extraordinarily full range of Thanksgiving options for you. For $154.99 you could literally call up an entire meal for eight (free-range turkey, brined and fully cooked, mashed potatoes, New England stuffing, gravy, vegetables and rolls and dessert). You could have roughly the same meal for twelve for $219.99, and if you wanted an intimate dinner for two, then that would set you back $42.99.

Now, a lot's been made recently about Whole Foods' commitment to animal welfare standards and about how John Mackey himself is a vegan. So, not to be outdone, there's a vegan meal. It's yours for $19.99, and you get a vegan holiday roast, stuffed with wild rice and dried cranberries, green beans with almonds, pumpkin corn chowder (dairy-free) and vegan pecan tart. Why so cheap you say? Well, that's because it's a "Vegan Dinner for you."

When I read that I had to laugh, because it sums up so much. The concept that vegans might possibly want to eat with other vegans, or that vegans might even have friends who are vegan and might want to celebrate Thanksgiving with more than one person, seems impossible for Whole Foods to imagine. Now, of course, we've all heard the stories of sad vegans unable to go home for Thanksgiving because they don't want to sit around a dead animal on the table, and perhaps this little Whole Foods offering will plug that gap. But, you couldn't sweeten the isolation and social alienation a little, John? Throw us a faux bone? Couldn't make it a deux, or a huit, or a douze?