(from my 2002 Archives)
Whenever I don’t know what to write about, I remote-control through the television channels until a likely snippet of information strikes my fancy. More often than not it’s something so absurd I have to write it down and come back to it later just to make sure I’m not making it up. I take such notes on whatever’s handy. Like right now, I’m reading what I jotted down earlier this week (on a large, coffee-stained manila envelope) about a guy named Caesar Barber.
Seems like Caesar’s quite overweight despite many attempts at eating sensibly. So he’s decided to sue Wendys, McDonalds, Burger King, and Kentucky Fried Chicken for having served him fatty-types of food for decades that were not appropriately labeled as being such. Caesar claims he became overweight because he was fraudulently led to believe the term “100% BEEF” meant fast food was nutritious.
Give me a break.
I am even more amazed as I write this (2002) because I just performed a search using the keywords “Caesar Barber” and came up with SEVEN pages of link information about this 272-pound slug. (Tim says [2011]: I just performed the search again. This time Google turned up 697,000 results!)
Caesar: get a life. Take responsibility for your shortcomings. Quit blaming everyone else for your sloppy habits. And why you’re at it — with a name like Caesar — show a little fortitude: push aside those greasy fries and burgers, and reach for a salad, instead.
+ + + + +
Tim says, some more food for thought: Apparently, the case was dismissed in September, 2003. Through the years, many other obesity lawsuits have circulated through the courts. In 2004, the “Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act” was passed. Who knows, maybe these lawmakers read my 2002 Simply Tim. Then again, maybe not.
I was at a friend’s recently and we “treated” ourselves to part of a “Heavy” marathon on some specialty channel.
It was certainly eye-popping and I felt distinctly uncomfortable viewing these men and women who were
morbidly obese and all the attendant problems – physical and emotional.
One diet regime started out with a large plate that contained one single poached scallop and some braised spinach – about 400 calories or so.
That was the main course and dessert probably consisted of 3 and 1/2 blueberries in a large martini glass.
One successful chap lost about 180 pounds (!) – definitely not part of my world.
These guilty pleasures are sometimes discombobulating.
Jeez. So many occurrences in this world are an exercise in absurdity. How blindingly brilliant does one have to be to look up the calories and fat in ground beef?! I wonder how much time and money was spent before that case was dismissed.
Well said.
I totally agree that we should take responsibility for our culpability in … whatever we are culpable about.
So on those rare occasions when I ate at fast food joints, I used to order salads, dressing came on the side and I used about 1/4 of the dressing. Then I read that the salad I ordered contained over 1,000 calories, and the bit of dressing even more, about 80 more. I finally realized that I cannot eat at these places ever EVER again.
So, in the spirit of the blog, let’s get the fast food companies to take responsibility for making their fries ADDICTIVE, unhealthy and fattening, their 100% beef burgers filled with crap (not anyother meat, though, ergo, 100% beef). I ate the salad with the understanding that it was healthier than a burger. Turns out I was wrong wrong wrong. I accept my responsibility. I was wrong.
Oh wait, is misled different from wrong?