Fat Chance

November 8, 2007
Nothing good can happen during a conversation that begins with one of the following statements:
“You’re going to be mad at me.”
“I tried to clean it.”
“It looks like the condom broke.”
“Our young pitcher just left the mound holding his shoulder.”

David Frum, a former speechwriter for President Bush, on yesterday’s Marketplace, complains about the obesity epidemic, and, of course, blames the individual. OBESITY IS NOT A CHOICE. Yes, some people lose weight, just like some people quit smoking, and some people give up drinking. That doesn’t, of course, mean that the solution is everyone else should just buck up and follow their example. If we could, believe me, we would. It sucks being fat.

I’ve been thinking about what an example might be to help explain what it feels like. Jim Gaffigan has a joke about eating something, finishing it, and realizing that you didn’t even enjoy it. It’s kind of like that. Eating, for an overweight person, is much more than just eating. It’s sexual, in a weird way-in the sense that you don’t always do it for the right reason, or indeed for any reason, and that you sometimes regret it when it’s over.

John Dvorak reveals in today’s Tech5 report that the vaunted November 11 tech attack by Al Queda is an old crappy Trojan Horse virus that modern antiviral programs will chew up and spit out. I guess, if you’re reading this November 11, you know that turned out to be the case.