fat for fall

Image via the New York Times

So, naturally, right after I drop 10 pounds and get myself back in shape, the New York Times announces that the "pot belly is IN" in an article called "It's Hip to be Round"!!!

What?! Poppycock! Nonsense! What is this tomfoolery?! Have they finally lost it at the Times?

I call foul. I'd like to think that I was savvy enough to be ahead of the times since I hat a gut this past winter and spring and just got rid of it in time for summer. But I know that I'm no trend setter. How can such a thing be in?! Especially when we are constantly being beat over the head by teachers, parents and newscasters about healthy living, the benefits of exercise, commercials trying to end the raging epidemic of childhood obesity, McDonald's serving salads, Shape Magazine and Ruby!? Besides didn't the Times just write about how competitive dieting in the office place is the new betting bracket? (Which, btw that's so true since I know at least 4 people who've engaged in pound wars with co-worker or with groups of friends and have had success and fun at the same time...) Anyway, I say it's laziness and a couple of fat writers/editors trying to get us all to gain weight so they themselves feel better about their own rock solid guts!

Too pronounced to be blamed on the slouchy cut of a T-shirt, too modest in size to be termed a proper beer gut, developed too young to come under the heading of a paunch, the Ralph Kramden is everywhere to be seen lately...
What the trucker cap and wallet chain were to hipsters of a moment ago, the Kramden is to what my colleague Mike Albo refers to as the “coolios” of now. Leading with a belly is a male privilege of long standing, of course, a symbol of prosperity in most cultures and of freedom from anxieties about body image that have plagued women since Eve.
(ps- side note, people at the NYT, I am assuming that you not only have pot-bellies of your own, but are old since I had to google "Ralph Kramden" to figure out what you were saying in your old-speak.)

The author and the people he interviews ramble on to blame the economy for laying guys off and forcing them to eat chips and watch tv all day, they blame the hipster for creating an anti-fad, they blame Obama becuase he's fit and the hipster want to be what he's not so are lining-up for lobster rolls(huh? we didn't suddenly see a spike in college attendees with Bush or a sudden swell of faithful husbands with Clinton), and they blame the gays for making hard bodies the new "prissy". How about you blame yourselves for falling out of shape?

I can only conclude Mr. Times Writer (Guy Coocoo Trebay) that you probably have a mouth full of same lobster rolls that you note the hipsters are eating.

Sign me up for the Post.