"Biles wore her goat necklace as another GOAT, Tom Brady, was in attendance to support her."

From "Simone Biles falls off balance beam to cost herself Olympics medal" (NY Post).

Maybe humility will make a comeback.

I've been observing the Olympics from afar. I don't even know where to find them on the mishmash of TV services I'm subscribed to, but I see the headlines. From the headlines, it seems that there are several American women who keep winning the medals, and as for the men, there's one very handsome swimmer, a gymnast whose glasses make him interesting, and a pole vaulter whose penis hit the pole crossbar.

"People don’t experience an addictive behavioral response to naturally occurring foods that are good for our health, like strawberries."

"It’s this subset of highly processed foods that are engineered in a way that’s so similar to how we create other addictive substances. These are the foods that can trigger a loss of control and compulsive, problematic behaviors that parallel what we see with alcohol and cigarettes." 

Said Ashley Gearhardt, associate professor in the psychology department at the University of Michigan, director of the Food and Addiction Science and Treatment lab at the University of Michigan, quoted in "Are Addictive Foods Making Us Fat?/Food researchers debate whether highly processed foods like potato chips and ice cream are addictive, triggering our brains to overeat" (NYT). 

The other side of the debate is Johannes Hebebrand, head of the department of child and adolescent psychiatry, psychosomatics and psychotherapy at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany: "You can take any addictive drug, and it’s always the same story that almost everyone will have an altered state of mind after ingesting it. That indicates that the substance is having an effect on your central nervous system. But we are all ingesting highly processed foods, and none of us is experiencing this altered state of mind because there’s no direct hit of a substance in the brain.... It’s the diversity of foods that is so appealing and causing the problem, not a single substance in these foods."

What do you think? Is it that some foods are just so appealing that you want to eat a lot or that some foods have a certain something that hooks you? Maybe these 2 experts could get along if they looked more philosophically at what wanting is. 

Also, I get the feeling that there's a somewhat political urge to blame big corporations for manufacturing tasty food. And a snobbish aesthetic preference for the idea of the "natural." Are the strawberries in the supermarket "naturally occurring foods"? That seems like a rather silly assertion. Strawberries make a visual argument for themselves... or do they?

"As the quarterback has aged, he works out less with weights, which could leave him prone to muscle tears."

"Now it’s all about planks, lunges and squats, followed by more pliability exercises, such as doing crunches with a vibrating roller beneath his back." He also uses "resistance bands, to make muscles more pliable, soft and resilient." 

From "Everything we know about Tom Brady’s extreme diet and fitness routines" (NY Post).

It's helpful to know what works for a highly functional body. He's 43 and he's minimizing the use of weights and looking to keep his muscles soft. There's a photograph of him in a bathing suit at the link, and compared to male fitness models, he looks out of shape. The phrase "dad bod" occurred to me. But he is in perfect shape. You have to question the use of weights and the pursuit of cut, swollen, hard muscles. 

Also, Tom Brady goes to sleep at 8:30 p.m. I'd been trying to stay up until at least 9 so I'm not being ridiculous, but if Tom Brady goes to sleep at 8:30, at the age of 43, then 8:30 is the perfect adult bedtime, and I will cast aside my embarrassment at wanting to sleep before 9. 

And here's a video that influenced me even before Tom Brady won his 7th Super Bowl. He shows Men's Health — home of those fitness models who don't look like Tom Brady — what's in his refrigerator:

 

Now, when you're food shopping, you'll be thinking What would Tom Brady buy?

Note the T-shirt with one word on the front: "Pliability."

In this time of unselfish coming together of communities, one man stands alone...

"Tom Brady says he will not re-sign with New England Patriots.... The 42-year-old has spent his entire 19-year NFL career with the Patriots, winning Six Super Bowls during that time. But he will become a unrestricted free agent when free agency opens on Wednesday" (CNN).

The man looked at his options and decided this, this is the time to turn my back on the people who supported me all these years.

You would think that out of sheer PR if nothing else, he would have thought to saying I will be a Patriot forever... I love you, New England… This is the time for all of us to embrace our dear family and stay together and support each other.…

ADDED: For those who think maybe the Patriots kicked Brady out:

“Tommy initiated contact (Monday) night & came over. We had a positive, respectful discussion,” [Patriots owner Robert] Kraft said. “It’s not the way I want it to end, but I want him to do what is in his best personal interest. After 20 years with us, he has earned that right. I love him like a son.”

Kraft said shortly after the season that he wanted Brady to either return to New England or retire.... There were reports that [GM Bill] Belichick was hesitant to pay Brady the $30 million that other franchises seem willing to do.

"There's only one 'Tom Terrific,' and that's Tom Seaver."

Said Congressman Peter King, complaining about Tom Brady's application for a trademark on the name "Tom Terrific," BBC reports.

All honor and respect to Tom Seaver, but if you want to say there's only one Tom Terrific, it's this guy:



That was part of the "Captain Kangaroo" TV show in the late 50s and early 60s. Wikipedia:

Drawn in a simple black-and white style reminiscent of children's drawings, it featured a gee-whiz boy hero, Tom Terrific, who lived in a treehouse and could transform himself into anything he wanted thanks to his magic, funnel-shaped "thinking cap," which also enhanced his intelligence. He had a comic lazybones of a sidekick, Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog, and an arch-foe named Crabby Appleton, whose motto was, "I'm rotten to the core!" Other foes included Mr. Instant the Instant Thing King; Captain Kidney Bean; Sweet Tooth Sam the Candy Bandit; and Isotope Feeney the Meany....

"Terrific" is an old-fashioned word of praise. It felt old-fashioned when it was used for Tom Seaver half a century ago, and Brady doesn't really want to be called that. He says he doesn't like it, and I believe him. I presume he's simply trying to prevent other people from profiting off of his brand.

By the way, "terrific" originally meant causing terror. In "Paradise Lost," there's "The Serpent... with brazen Eyes And hairie Main terrific." "Terrific" became "an enthusiastic term of commendation" in the late 19th century. (I'm quoting the unlinkable OED.)

I almost never use the word. I associate it with FDR, whose last words were, "I have a terrific headache." I can't say I've never used the word. I once said a cartoonist had "a terrific drawing style," and I've blogged about other people using the word, notably: 1. the woman who was thrown clear of the car wreck that killed Jackson Pollock, who wrote that she and Andy Warhol had "a terrific crush on each other," and 2. the WaPo columnist who wrote in 2013, "Barack Obama has what it takes to be a terrific law student. It’s less clear those are the ingredients of a successful president."

"I was always praised for my body, and I felt like people had expectations from me that I couldn’t deliver."

"I felt very vulnerable, because I can work out, I can eat healthy, but I can’t change the fact that both of my kids enjoyed the left boob more than the right. All I wanted was for them to be even and for people to stop commenting on it."

From "Gisele Bündchen Reveals She Got a Boob Job After Breastfeeding Kids — but Instantly Regretted It."

"When I woke up, I was like, ‘What have I done?’ I felt like I was living in a body I didn’t recognize," but her best husband in the world, Tom Brady, said "I love you no matter what," and that taught her, "What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger."

I'm blogging this as refreshment from other, more dire problems afflicting women. Body image can be troubling for many of us, but this is Gisele Bündchen, famously beautiful, rich for her beauty, married to a beautiful man who is rich for his physical prowess. You don't get any more beautifully elite than her. She was always praised for her body, and that creates an exquisite problem: other people expect you to have a beautiful body, and they notice and talk about little things that have gone wrong, things that for all her hard work on her body — exercise, eating right — were something she could not control. Two babies enjoyed the left boob more than the right. It's those outside forces, the people with their expectations and the babies with their left-boob preference, that drove her to seek outside help. In search of perfection, she got the surgery, and surgery, she learned, is another imperfection, an alien imperfection. Better the unevenly sucked breasts than the surgically invaded ones! But she learned. She learned through the wisdom of her gorgeous husband and the hoary old aphorism that maybe he taught her or maybe she found for herself:

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Now, back to Christine Blasely Ford and Brett Kavanaugh. Did what didn't kill them make them stronger?

ADDED: If you Google "What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger" (or "What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger"), you don't get a lot of interesting stuff about Nietzsche and the uses of his aphorism, you get a screenful of stuff about Kelly Clarkson and her hit song "Stronger." If Nietzsche weren't already dead, it would make him stronger, presumably, to see that.

Body-shaming Tom Brady.

Strangely apt.

So wrong and yet so right.

"A Super Bowl message from President Trump includes the phrase 'to proudly stand for the National Anthem.'"

A Super Bowl message from President Trump includes the phrase “to proudly stand for the National Anthem” pic.twitter.com/L9XVkwgfcb

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) February 4, 2018

I noticed that via "Several Eagles Players Are Already Refusing to Celebrate Super Bowl Win With Trump" in New York Magazine, where I also saw this in the sidebar (from last May): "It’s Gisele Bündchen’s Fault Tom Brady Doesn’t Eat Nightshades."

That means he doesn't eat tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and peppers (bell and chili). What an awful limitation! But he does have a very beautiful wife....

Starting the week with pure energy. #greenjuice 🍃🍏🍃 Começando a semana com energia pura. #sucoverde

A post shared by Gisele Bündchen (@gisele) on Oct 20, 2014 at 5:01am PDT

"Yes, Tom. We get it. That’s 'your' ass."

That's Tom and Lorenzo, speaking to Tom Brady.

"I’ve never eaten a strawberry in my life. I have no desire to do that... Absolutely not."

Said Tom Brady.

Never had any coffee either.

I never ate a strawberry until I was in my 20s. My sister had told me early on that strawberries were bad — strawberries and peaches and coconut. It's like she was my taster. If she'd suffered the pain and given me the word that these things were bad, I had the advantage of avoiding the pain. Never touched it. Still won't eat coconut.

Is everything about Trump?

Here's a headline at Politico: "Patriots Super Bowl victory could be a problem for Trump."

What's the theory?

The Super Bowl is set for Feb. 7, and past Patriots victory parades have traditionally been set for the Tuesday immediately following the game — in this case Feb. 9, the day of the [New Hampshire] primary. The Pats, already reigning Super Bowl champions, held their parade on a Wednesday last year, but only because a Tuesday procession was snuffed out by a snowstorm. So far, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh — a supporter of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton — isn’t prepared to publicly discuss the possibility....

“When a million people show up in Boston, you can figure 30 percent of them or 25 percent of them are from New Hampshire," said Joel Maiola, a New Hampshire adviser to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's campaign.... Maiola joked that if Brady chokes, he just might be throwing the game to keep turnout high for Trump. “The fix is in,” he said with a laugh. “If we start seeing Brady flopping on the field, we know he’s taking a flop for Donald Trump.”

Why is Christie's guy drawing attention to the close relationship between Trump and Tom Brady?!

About that Angela Merkel person-of-the-year Time Magazine cover....

"​The one good thing to come out of DeflateGate? This killer navy suit."

"After Tom Brady's four-game suspension was nullified by a federal judge earlier today, the man took a victory lap in his finest outfit. Here's a play-by-play..."

Tom Brady wins in federal court.

"Judge Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court in Manhattan did not rule on whether Brady tampered with the footballs in a bid for competitive advantage. Instead, he focused on the narrower question of whether the collective bargaining agreement between the N.F.L. and the players union gave Goodell the authority to carry out the suspension, and whether Brady was treated fairly during his attempt to have his suspension overturned."

"And obviously I apologize to Tom Brady for not making him as good-looking as he is."

Courtroom artist bullied. I, for one, protest.

ADDED: I wrote this post late at night (though not as late as it looks — I'm in the Pacific Time Zone and the blog set to Central Time). Let me explain my position. I don't mind the mockery. Have your fun. It's like the "Ecce Homo" retouching, perhaps. What I really object to is the apology. I wish the artist had stood her ground. She's knuckled under to pressure, but I wish she had stood by her work and her stature as an artist and said: "You people are in thrall to you idea of the 'pretty boy,' but I was there. I saw the man in person and not on the football field where he's in control and in his glory. I saw him in a context that you haven't seen. I was not there to show you the mental picture you already have, the controlled media image of a 'pretty boy.' I saw his character. I saw his soul. And if you laugh, it is your own shallowness you hear. I am an artist, and I showed you the truth. This is how Tom Brady really looks.

"Get nice and rowdy. It's a 4:15 game, plenty of time to get lubed up..."

Says Tom Brady to Patriots fans.

"Yeah. Start drinking early."

A Patriots spokesperson clarifies, saying that Brady wanted fans to "stay hydrated, drink a lot of water. Be loud. Drink responsibly."

This suggests new slang. Which do you like better?
	"I'm getting lubed up," when you're drinking water.
	"I'm staying hydrated," when you're drinking alcohol.
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