Mike Tyson: Vegan and Contemplative

One of the more striking revelations in Daphne Merkin's New York Times Magazine profile of Mike Tyson comes near the top of the story. Not that he attends Gymboree classes with his two-year-old daughter Milan in suburban Las Vegas--and now, kids, we're going to play a game called Elephant in The Room!--but how diet helps to manage his impulses:

As part of his cleaning-up campaign, he has been adhering to a strict vegan diet for nearly two years, explaining that he doesn’t want anything in him “that’s going to enrage me — no processed food, no meat.” He says that he can no longer abide the smell of meat even on someone’s breath and has dropped 150 pounds since he weighed in at 330 in 2009. “I’ve learned to live a boring life and love it,” he declares, sounding more determined than certain. “I let too much in, and look what happened. . . . I used to have a bunch of girls and some drugs on the table. A bunch of people running around doing whatever.”

If the idea of reading another celebrity profile makes your eyes glaze over, think again. This is a fascinating story of a man struggling with life, himself, right, wrong, a "tripolar" disorder, fame and humility. Also, there are pigeons.