Obesity makes medical procedures difficult.Oftentimes, patients are too obese to even attempt an image--since they either exceed the weight limit on the table or they're too wide to fit into the machine. Once, doctors could get around this problem by taking the admittedly embarrassing step of sending extremely obese patients to veterinary facilities, where table limits on imaging machines went as high as 1,100 pounds....
Worse, the people who are treating you probably don't like you:
A 2003 survey of 620 primary care physicians, for instance, found that at least 50 percent of them believed obese patients were awkward, ugly, and noncompliant. A 1989 sample of over 100 nurses, meanwhile, found that one in four of them were "repulsed" by caring for obese patients....
One explanation is simple class bias. "When you think about the socio-demographic and economic backgrounds of many physicians, they often do not belong to groups that have the highest BMIs, " says Christina Wee, an internist at Beth Israel Deaconess who researches obesity and health disparity issues. "So, in general, we physicians often have a different perspective-- the people whom we know are often not obese, or at least not as obese as the patients we see in clinical practice."
Another explanation is that the medical profession often leans more toward the profane than the sacred, as doctors and nurses seek to leaven a stressful work environment with black humor--which frequently comes at the expense of those they're caring for. That some of that black humor would be internalized and converted into actual negative attitudes is, perhaps, inevitable.
Are they laughing about you behind your back? Or do they disrespect you to your face or your...
As Lynn McAfee, a 400-plus-pound Philadelphia-area woman who serves as the director of medical advocacy for the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination, elaborates: "You're laying there with your feet in stirrups, holding your own fat thighs apart and being lectured by somebody to lose weight. Or you're told, as I was by my gynecologist, 'So you're not sexually active.' And I said, 'Yeah, I am.' And she said later on, 'If you were sexually active,' and I interrupted her and said, 'I am sexually active!' And then it happened a third time. ... Gynecologists are generally not our friends."
Disturbing, but there's money to be made:
[T]he market for plus-sized medical equipment is booming--to the tune, according to some estimates, of as much as $3 billion per year. Companies with names like Big Boyz and Amplestuff now sell everything from extra-extra-large patient gowns and blood-pressure cuffs to 1,000-pound-weight-bearing hospital beds with built-in scales and double- wide wheelchairs. Even medical settings as prosaic as doctors' waiting rooms and hospital bathrooms are getting the super-size treatment: A 2002 article in the journal American Family Physician counseled doctors to equip their reception areas with "sturdy, armless chairs and high, firm sofas"; and many hospitals have begun replacing wall-mounted commodes with ones that sit on the floor.
Posts
62 comments:
I wonder what percentage of the population is morbidly obese. I suspect that, like many other products and services in a free market economy, if you fit a niche need, you will have to look for niche providers.
That woman at the gynecologist? That whole scene played like something from a Farrelly brothers movie...
And it's about time the airlines started charging by size and weight!
The war on obesity is already lost if everybody agrees on the appropriateness of having a Council on Size and Weight Discrimination headed by someone who weighs 400lbs.
We don't have cable or an antenna chez MadisonMan. We get several very clear signals. How is that like x-raying the obese?
I can't wait for Hillarycare! Everyone's behavior will be everybody's business.
I'm still trying to feature in my mind's eye the visage of a sexually active 400+ pounder. Woman or man makes no matter, so either way.
"The war on obesity is already lost if everybody agrees on the appropriateness of having a Council on Size and Weight Discrimination headed by someone who weighs 400lbs"
How quickly we have cycled through the predictable PC arc in which the once morbidly obese became "disabled" and then "differently-sized" victims claiming redress for the wrongs dealt out to them by a cruel lean-normative society.
The 400-pound Lynn McAfee would see less negative attitudes from her health providers if she'd stop complaining and join a health club.
"...Or you're told, as I was by my gynecologist, 'So you're not sexually active.' And I said, 'Yeah, I am.' And she said later on, 'If you were sexually active,' and I interrupted her and said, 'I am sexually active!' And then it happened a third time. ..."
The physician probably didn't think of battery-powered equipment in her inquiry...
Regardless, yes, the defiantly obese are a growing public health problem, driving up health insurance, Medicaid, Medicare and SCHIP costs for all of us. It will, of course, only get so much better when the Left finally succeeds in demagoguing the rest of us into socialized medicine, because, don't you know, socialized medicine is the epitome of personal responsibility.
Repulsion of obesity is now an issue of class? Sheesh.
What's next? Men who don't like to date ugly women are going to be accused of class warfare?
I think there are plenty enough reasons to be repulsed by obesity without resorting to class warfare.
Here's the thing. Many, if not most, obese people, can control weight by controlling food. By turning into victims, it discounts those who have physiological problems by lumping them (no pun intended) in with those who choose to eat too much. And BTW, its not healthy.
Yeah so maybe its an addiction like alcoholism, all complicated and everything by what your parents did to you, etc. etc. Get control of yourself.
My brother sells medical exam tables. The last few years have been a gravy train. Government hospitals now buy the most expensive tables that can hold more weight and get closer to the ground. It is similar to a generation ago when you saw all bathrooms get remodeled to be handicap accessible. bariatrics is by far the fastest growing segment of the medical supply industry.
"I'm still trying to feature in my mind's eye the visage of a sexually active 400+ pounder. Woman or man makes no matter, so either way."
It's a common sexual fantasy, isn't it? And now, Zeb, you're engaging in it too.
I'm sure there are many porno films that would supplement your imagination, but let me recommend Fellini's "8 1/2."
You don't know what you are talking about. The hatred and scorn heaped on overweight people is the last bastion of bigotry that is acceptable in polite conversation. Simply compare the angular sharp edged skankyness of the Olsen twins to the sleek curves of the gorgeous Queen Latifah. The bony protrubences of Nicole Richie with the ample flesh and smiling countenance of the divine Jill Scott. You are fools I tell you, fools......
Why don't we get the 'pity' articles for the "healthy" who are more likely to suffer from Alzheimer's, or infections generally than the obese? How's about the studies that show perhaps being overweight or even obese suffer more from some maladies, but less than the "healthy" for others?
Trooper's right; weight bigot day at the house of Alt....
It's a common sexual fantasy, isn't it? And now, Zeb, you're engaging in it too.
Well,... no. Just trying to visualize it, and having difficulty. At the risk of being called a bigot, I'm finding that the harder I try to see it, the less appealing the emerging image of it becomes, to the tipping point where I shut it off.
Here ya go...
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=111307B
I am sure that you would agree that most primitive cultures are closer to our mother the earth and the reality of Nature as Homo Sapiens have encountered throughout the ages. In almost every "primitive" culture, so called fat, even morbidly obese people were worshiped as gods. To this very day, immigrant cultures be they Hispanic or Italian or eastern European know that a nice fat healthy body is what god intended. Every grandma will pinch the cheek of a beautiful chubby little baby. They know. It is only with the onset of the modern world has the worship of the thin and unhealthy boney bitch become the ideal. Come back to nature, have some pasta or a meatball hero. Leave these skinny fools to their tofu and bean sprouts. God bless James Beard and Julia Child. Pizza and calzones for everyone!
X-ray imaging is my field. Table weight capacity used to be an issue. It really isn't anymore. If the patient exceeds the table capacity, you really shouldn't be imaging the patient. The real issue is that the image quality in obese patients is very poor, and the x-ray dose is very high. It's simple physics. And as for the attitude of the medical staff to the obese, consider that lifting these patients onto the table or into the scanner is a real safety issue for the staff.
Just to be clear (although no one cares what I said), I'm no fan of skinny, model obsessed, chisiled body types. Some weight is good, and its especially good for bearing children. But its not wrong to be critical of obese people who can't control what they consume. What else are we going to do to accomodate people? Stop criticizing people who use a cell phone in a movie theater?
Oh I'm sorry, I may have offended some one.
"But its not wrong to be critical of obese people who can't control what they consume. What else are we going to do to accomodate people?"
A simple solution: Mind your own fucking business.
Which, of course, goes for businesses as well; if you want to please your customers, accommodate them, fat or otherwise.
A 2003 survey of 620 primary care physicians, for instance, found that at least 50 percent of them believed obese patients were awkward, ugly, and noncompliant.
This is news? It seems to me that probability of someone obese being either physically graceful or beautiful is rather small. As for noncompliant, that pretty much speaks for itself, given what a primary care physician is likely to have recommended and the patient failed to follow-through on.
The field of geriatrics has talked about the reduced longevity of the the thin elderly compared to the slightly overweight for years. Being skinny and old does not bode well.
Fat is mostly a problem for the hugely obese (over 35 BMI as the cited articles states) ....or if you have obesity associated with diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea, or joint disease, even if BMI is less than 35.
The woman in the article is barking up the wrong tree. Personal responsibility is somewhere within her corpulent frame. And if she abdicates any control over what she puts in her own mouth, believe me, someone will propose taking control of it for her.
Prader-Willi syndrome, a genetic disorder characterized by mental retardation, an insatiable appetite, and even hyperphagia (eats everything, even the inedible), often results in morbid obesity. Throughout their lives, food and even non-food items are kept under lock and key.
The government is willing to take this over for you in the same way, if you voice inability to do so otherwise.
Putting aside the images on TV, I'm trying to remember how many of my regular doctors, over my lifetime, have been actually slender, as opposed to at least pudgy.
So far, I've come up with one. No, wait--two.
That's odd. Never thought of it that way before.
***
I tend to discount the black humor thing--well, maybe discount isn't the word. I don't take it all THAT seriously, because there are a number of professions in which you find that. It's not necessarily, in and of itself, a barometer of caring, much less doing one's job well.
By all means be as critical as you want. Mock the morbidly obese as much as you want.
Laugh at their suffering and pain. Shame them and laugh. They are not as forgivable as junkies or drunks. Perhaps metabolism and poor eating habits and family dysfunction have led to a spiraling problem that is hard to get a handle on. Push them down on the floor and throw their lunch in the garbage. After all, it’s their fault. It makes you feel so much better about yourself. But know that the health Nazi’s won’t stop at that. They want to take away our doughnuts. They want to regulate our French fries. They want to politicize our pizza pies. They know how much you should eat and what you should eat and what your perfect body weight should be. They know best. The government appointed cafeteria lady will give you a carrot stick and confiscate your Ring Dings. When they came for Louie Anderson, I did nothing……
As someone who spends a pretty good potion of my life going into people houses when they are sick and injured, I just have to weigh in.
We have to care for you we don't necessarily have to like it. Things that we don't like:
1) Houses that smell, if you have 57 cats and no litter box we are getting out of there as fast as possible.
2) Drunks, you are not as entertaining as you think you are. If you vomit on us we won't be happy at all.
3) Big people, if you weigh over 300 pounds it is not much fun to pick you up. At 400 pounds we need an engine company to help get you down the stairs.
Amen, Trooper.
They can have my turkey fryer when they pry it from my cold, dead hands...
Yeah Palladian, I'd love to mind my own "fucking" business.
I choose to distinguish between being critical and being mean.
I just have to weigh in.
I appreciate the use of this phrase.
If only the obese would live on a 1600 calorie a day diet! Then they would be thin.
No one is born gay either -- it's simply a matter of self-control.
Palladian, count to one hundred before you reply.
Not sure about you, FLS, but I don't chalk my heterosexuality up to self-control.
1. Palladian and Trooper seem to offer similar advice:
MYOB.
And I agree.
2. Black humor is about everybody; it's part of most jobs, isn't it? A friend of mine is a grade school teacher. When her fellow pedagogues gather, you would turn white over the descriptions of their little charges. My lawyer siblings have plenty of mockery for their clients as well.
Amazingly we think that some, prone to engage in addictions, genes, should be dealt with, and others ignored. Which commitee decides those?
If only the obese would live on a 1600 calorie a day diet! Then they would be thin.
Don't know if they'd be thin.
Now I know how Lucy feels.
SteveR, you seem like a good guy, shouldn't that give you cause to reexamine your position?
That woman at the gynecologist? That whole scene played like something from a Farrelly brothers movie...
Or a Playboy cartoon on the same theme:
Sad, cross-looking little fellow is standing miserably at the bottom of the staircase of a brothel.
At top of stairs is one enormous whore - a good 400lbs, give or take.
The madam of the place is saying to the whore:
"Peaches honey, Mr Parsons wants his money back. He says he came in a skin fold."
But its not wrong to be critical of obese people who can't control what they consume.
Well, what about the obese who consume markedly fewer calories but still don't lose weight? For most obese people, their condition is a result of a metabolic defect relating to fat storage (not a thyroid or "gland" problem). There is ample clinical evidence showing that neither calorie restriction nor exercise helps reduce weight in obese patients.
I fervently wish Gary Taubes' new book was getting more attention.
SteveR said: "Now I know how Lucy feels."
And yet, you haven't felt compelled to hurl insults. Score one for the self-control argument.
"So take it from me, Thornton Melon, if you want to look thin, you hang out with fat people. "
From the movie, Back to School.
Key difference in the addiction question is that sex, alcohol, caffeine, tobacco and even internet usage are not a requirement for life. But everyone has to eat. It is one of, if not the most important function of human life if you hope to survive. Since food is the most basic necessity of life, the question becomes the quality of life. That is the most personal decision we all must make, how our habits and choices affect the quality of our lives. Some people have a lot more control and make decisions that work for them. Their choices are aesthetically pleasing to the multitudes. Others make really bad choices that end badly. But the government should not get in the business of dictating these choices in the most basic of human functions. Who knows where this could go.
"Soylent green is people."
shouldn't that give you cause to reexamine your position?
Well it probable that I did not state it well. I don't want to diminish the problem, because I know people who fight addictions of many kinds. While Foster Brooks made a career of playing a laughable drunk, my mother was drinking herself to an early death. Now we do all sorts of things to intervene when people get wrapped up with alcohol, etc. I just don't think we should say its OK to be obese. Its OK to be an obese person. There's a difference.
SteveR, I think we agree. But if you reread the original post, you can see that it deals with the treatment of morbidly obese people. I have a tremendous amount of respect for caregivers who help the sick and infirm. People who work with Alzheimer’s patients in nursing homes. Nurses who are the primary caretakers of the terminally ill. However the original post is clear that many don’t have the patience to deal with the problems from the truly obese. Hey they are human too (the nurses that is). It is understandable that they would be frustrated in the day to day care of recalcitrant patients. But it is too easy to go from ridicule to regulation in today’s nanny state. Did you know that Nanny Bloomberg’s health department banned the use of trans-fat in restaurant cooking? That hefty fines are imposed if you use a certain kind of shortening. It’s a short step for these commies fucks to ban ice cream. It’s a repeat of those god dammed Carrie Nation, axe wielding Prohibitionists who want to tell everyone how to live their lives. If we relax our vigilance for a moment, a beer and a brat will be banned in our lifetime. When they came for Dom Deluise, I did nothing…….
The discussion is about obesity not pudginess or even being somewhat fat. There is a qualitative and quantitative difference.
In over 50 years, I have yet to meet a single obese person who did not eat to excess. That includes a few relatives. Over time, I've heard just every possible reason for their being obese, although personal responsibility rarely figures in the conversation. ALL of the obese people I know personally were not ALWAYS obese. ALL of them lead relatively sedentary lives. Some have virtually no choice at some point, but almost all of them chose their lifestyle.
Contrary to what has been stated above, the percentage of people who are obese because of some genetic twist of fate (or metabolic rate) is tiny. You can make up all the excuses you want to but the fact remains that obesity is a modern phenomenon, one that began being quite visible in the last quarter of the 20th century. Barring evidence that the genetic make-up of the American population underwent a massive, unprecedented and spontaneous transformation at that time, it is reasonable to assume that the facts point to individual choices causing obesity.
Aside to Trooper: I personally don't make fun of, or laugh at, obese people. At the same time, I don't make excuses for them either.
My wife is one of the best nurses on the planet, now prematurely retired.
One of the reasons for the premature retirement is the beating her 120 lb. frame was taking trying to position and manuever 300+ lb patients.
This problem has exploded in the past two decades and it is a major problem for healthcare providers.
MYOB is no option for health providers, they take whoever comes through the door.
And the black humor bit - nurses have the best, it is one of their few coping mechanisms.
Randy I know you would not be the type of person who makes fun of obese people. I also totally respect how hard it is for the nurses in this world. I personally hate doctors but love the nurses because they are the people who really provide the health care in the trenches. What I really despise is the holier-than-thou prohibionists who want to control the debate. People are fat. People have been fat throughout the ages. Some of the greatest human beings in recorded history were overweight. Buddha. Charlemagne. George Washington had a bit of gut when he got older. Ben Franklin was no lightweight. Martin Luther King had a nice size paunch. Why is the expression “Fat and happy” and not “Skinny and happy.” I don’t ask you to excuse them; I humbly submit that it is not your role to do so. I stand for my cubby brethren. I am an advocate for those who enjoy their life with wine, woman and song and the occasional pastry. We stand united right in the face of the pinch faced, self-righteous, censorious puritan purveyors of disdain for the rotund. Sara Lee we love you! Chef Boyardee, you the man! Betty Crocker is my dream date! Little Debbie is a dream come true (for child molesters like Lucky)! Hostess cupcakes, long may they wave. We who are about to dine, salute you!!!!!!!!!
Puritanism rears its ugly head again. Almost any excuse will suffice to push men to disregard the law and to crush the individual and collective liberties of their enemies.
There is an addictive pleasure in telling others what to do. Whenever groups come to power to improve the character of the people by imposing pure lifestyles on them, bureaucrats quickly come to enjoy the power inherent to the task. They will reward, punish, uplift, and humiliate according to their whims.
As they used to say about the New Deal politicians at Washington: they came to do good and they stayed to do well.
Yes, Trooper, there's a lot to be said historically for the phrase "fat and happy." I remember reading research from around mid-century (or perhaps as late as the '60's) that most people considered pudginess a sign of success in others.
In most cultures, there is ample historical evidence that wealth allowed more choices in eating (and thus more pounds). A pudgy or fat person was invariably well-off as well. Folk wisdom has its roots in observations such as these. Chinese palm reading reflects it. Rich people had access to more food, and more importantly, salt. Their fingers were fatter. When holding a palm extended flat, there were less likely to have "holes" visible at the point the fingers met the palm. Over time, this was interpreted as meaning money would not "slip through" those holes, thus those who had no holes were more likely to accumulate wealth. Those who had holes were encouraged to buy rings to "close" the holes and stop the loss of wealth. Of course, by investing in jewels and precious metals (the rings), one ends up accumulating wealth. [Yes, I'm oversimplifying here, but that is the gist of it.]
As the wealth of our own nation has increased beyond the necessities of survival and minimal comforts, our average girth has expanded because the cost of food in real dollar terms (hours worked to get X number of calories) has declined significantely, larger amounts of discretionary income are available for other things (such as excessive intake of food), and our work is obviously far less physical in nature than it was for the average person 100 years ago. We also are AT work far fewer hours than we we were 100 years ago
Like you, I have no objection to people doing what they like with their own bodies. (I'm not particulalry fond of them asking me to pay for them doing it or creating new excuses to allow them to do it, however.)
To provide another context. IIRC, Metlife had to revise their schedule of what weight constitutes "standard" for life insurance purposes a couple of years ago. As one of the largest insurers in America, with a 100+ year database covering some incredibly high percentage of the American population, they have statistical information available to them unrivaled by almost anyone else, including the United States government. Probably only Prudential has as good information. I believe that it is the first time ever that they had to raise the weight allowed to meet the definition of "standard" by a significant amount. (In insurance terms, the definition of "standard" is almost always the range encompassing 85% of te population.)
I'm not sure of this information, but I read a few weeks ago that for the first time in the history of the United States of America, we are no longer the tallest people on earth. Why has that changed, I wonder? The comparison apparently controlled for immigration influxes from Asia & Latin America.(I didn't know we were, and @ 5'-9" I bring down the average)
When they came for Dom Deluise, I did nothing…….
It's interesting you should mention Dom Deluise. Does anyone recall the movie Fatso, in which DeLuise plays a fat man coping with his food addiction?
It's an entertaining movie with some great performances, but what stikes me when I see it today is how thin DeLuise is in it - by today's standards that is.
What was fat is now thin and what was obese is now fat. (And on the opposite extreme what was thin is now fat and what was skeletal is now considered beautiful in fashion mags.)
Where do we go now? It's so confusing.
I am sorry if I seemed too vociferous in my defense of the pleasingly plump. But food and the consumption of same is one of my passions. Much like Palladian’s defense of art, I am passionate in my defense of pastry, ardent in my admiration of apple pie. What could be better than a rare t-bone served with a side of sting beans and a baked potato with sour cream and chives? A steaming bowl of mussels in a white wine sauce with fresh bread for dipping. Hot from the oven apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and freshly brewed coffee. Potato and eggs in Italian bread with salt, pepper and a sprinkling of pecorino romano. And for you modern art enthusiast, a vast white expanse of creamy mashed potato, the hills and dales of creamy white only broken the hint of melted home churned butter, granules of salt and flecks of fresh ground pepper. Let Nicole Richie puke in peace, lord love a duck. Broiled.
But food and the consumption of same is one of my passions. Much like Palladian’s defense of art, I am passionate in my defense of pastry, ardent in my admiration of apple pie. What could be better than a rare t-bone served with a side of sting beans and a baked potato with sour cream and chives? A steaming bowl of mussels in a white wine sauce with fresh bread for dipping. Hot from the oven apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and freshly brewed coffee. Potato and eggs in Italian bread with salt, pepper and a sprinkling of pecorino romano. And for you modern art enthusiast, a vast white expanse of creamy mashed potato, the hills and dales of creamy white only broken the hint of melted home churned butter, granules of salt and flecks of fresh ground pepper.
Is this food porn? LOL
So Trooper, can I count you as a Babe Ruth fan?
I am sorry if I seemed too vociferous in my defense of the pleasingly plump.
Were you? I had not noticed. Really!
But food and the consumption of same is one of my passions.
Mine, too. One of the few left to me these days.
Much like Palladian’s defense of art, I am passionate in my defense of pastry, ardent in my admiration of apple pie.
Ah, yes. We had the most remarkable bakery near here, particularly considering the middle of nowhere locale. Amazingly consistent and delicious: almond, choc, plain croissant done just right, danish not-too-large and not-too-sweet, and all kinds of stuff I can't remember the names of. And the cakes! So moist and rich but not shovelled full of extras as is so often the case now. Unfortunately, the owner was not a good manager - his employees walked all over him. I was crushed when he went bust.
As for pies, I'll give you your apple, and take Ollaliberry pie. What I really want is the recipe for strawberry rhubarb pie w/ buttercrumb crust used by the baker @ Ezekiel's Wheel in Portland in the early '90's. Oh, man, indescribable excellence. (I'd settle for just her butter-crumb crust recipe.)
What could be better than a rare t-bone served with a side of sting beans and a baked potato with sour cream and chives?
Filet mignon with same.
A steaming bowl of mussels in a white wine sauce with fresh bread for dipping.
Sounds good to me! Your treat?
Hot from the oven apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and freshly brewed coffee.
OK, I do I love a good apple pie. BUT it is so damned hard to find a GOOD apple pie these days. Perhaps my apple trees will bear fruit next year. Now a fresh peach pie made from peaches off the tree in the backyard...
And for you modern art enthusiast, a vast white expanse of creamy mashed potato, the hills and dales of creamy white only broken the hint of melted home churned butter, granules of salt and flecks of fresh ground pepper.
I like your style, Trooper. Gravy shall never taint any mashed potatoes I eat. Only a crater full of butter will do. No need for garlic or sour cream in the mix. (Although my sister-in-law does such a good job of sour cream and other extras each Thanksgiving that butter is superfluous. And she always makes an extra amount for me to take home.)
lord love a duck. Broiled.
No. Roasted. Chinese-style. Peking. Camphor/Tea. All good 2 me.
/s/ Mashed Potato Kid
P.s. Now you've made me hungry!
Peter Palladas said..."Peaches honey, Mr Parsons wants his money back. He says he came in a skin fold."
Oh, Lord, that gave me a flashback of the time I sat next to a very fat woman on a plane -- her abdomen rested on her lap and extended beyond her knees — and she talked to me the whole way (on a long flight) and much of it was about sex, with graphic details — and I wasn't asking for information.
Of course it's food porn. You have to understand what we are dealing with here. Forget the rush of speed, the languid ride of horse, the jolt of the Peruvian marching powder, the trill of the turn of a card. It is food that reigns supreme in sensual pleasures that can be described politely in mixed company. Randy, if you are ever in New York, the dinner is of course on me. Perhaps we would go to Churrascaria Plataforma for the Brazilian rodizio where they bring unlimited skewers of meat: filet mignon, prime rib, pork lion, lamb, chicken, and broiled fish. They put two tokens at your place setting, a green to have them bring the unlimited skewers, and a red for when you want a breather. Perhaps we could hit the Golden Unicorn in Chinatown for an old fashioned Chinese feast with duck the way you described, crusty fried dumplings and assorted Szechwan dishes too numerous to enumerate. We could go to the Old Homestead for some Kobe beef, massaged by the most winsome of geishas and brought perfectly prepared to your table. For our Viennese friends we can hit Thomas Beisl for some velvety liver terrine with kumquat-cranberry compote, speck and sausage charcuterie to be washed down with a great selection of tap beer. Then some pastries for desert. I could go on and on and on…..but soon we would be so stuffed that everyone will point and laugh at us. Perhaps we too would break an x-ray table, but we would know that we had lived our lives as god had intended…PS. The Babe was a great American.... the greatest hitter in the game....a prodigious consumer of hot dogs….a sexual athlete....and one chubby bastard. God bless him, he is what America is all about.
Of course I meant pork loin, not pork lion, which is what Tony the Tiger used to try when he wanted to get his freak on. Sorry I got away from myself for a minute.
It was interesting hearing about how the professor met Maxine.
I ate a brownie today — at a café where, glancing up, I saw a cadaverous woman struggling to introduce a leaf of lettuce into her mouth. At first, she had a couple leaves on the fork, and then she made a great effort to shake one leaf off and then to put the other leaf into her mouth. It was scary!
And I do remember the movie "Fatso." Can't remember how fat Dom DeLuise looked in it, but I do remember how Jackie Gleason looked in "The Honeymooners." Svelte compared to people I see every day.
I also remember a woman named Norma, who lived across the street from us when I was a kid in the 1950s. Norma was fat, and it was a strange thing. No one else was fat, so there was just this one woman, who was the fat woman.
Today, most women are at least as fat as Norma was. And the idea that there was something special going on with Norma... it's incomprehensible now.
The savory bliss of the meals described by Trooper, the sensual ecstasy of the desserts extolled by Internet Ronin, are as nothing when compared with the joy of looking in the mirror and seeing defined abs!
You guys are cruel! All this food talk is driving me crazy. My 3 month old has a very sensitive stomach, and I'm reduced at the moment to a diet of rice milk, Cheerios, rice, chicken, beef, lettuce, and pasta, all plain and unseasoned. I can have salt and olive oil to liven things up, but that's it. Recently I tried adding eggs back and didn't upset him too much, so I may be able to have an occasional egg as a special treat. So Palladian, think of me as you enjoy your gastronomic delights!
Ooops, sorry, it was Trooper York and Randy who were making my stomach rumble.
tjl: LOL! Hey, I had those, too, once. When I had mirrors. Or did I give up the mirrors after I misplaced the abs? It was so long ago, I can't remember.
Kathy: Sorry, I guess this far down the thread should have come with a warning. Congrats on your baby! Here's hoping your child grows out of it sooner than it quits breast feeding.
Oh my lard.
Whatever happened to blaming this kind of thing on medical conditions?
Now it's all about people being responsible.
The reality is, sometimes they just aren't.
Post a Comment