How Slim Jim stays that way

Usually I don't ask people about their weight, but I was reading a review of "Economic Aspects of Obesity" (U. of Chicago, 2011), and guess what? It's just not our fault--it's a result of the "food environment." Since the doctors, nutritionists and social scientists couldn't solve the problem, the economists are piling on looking at food prices, wages, urban planning, geography, etc. Cha-ching--more gov't money for research and behavior modification.

So when Jim stopped at my table to say hello, I asked him how he stays so trim (no belly at all--flat as a teen-age athlete). He seemed a bit surprised because nowadays he only does 100 sit ups and 150 leg raises, so he's not feeling too trim. I was afraid to ask if that was daily or weekly.

I think it might be good for these researchers to graph the weight increase, especially of the low income, since the launch of the 1964 Food Stamp Act back in the days when hunger was a problem, or at the modern women's movement begun in the early 1970s when women flooded the labor force at the urging of the feminists and started the massive growth in the restaurant industry. I'm just saying. . . there's more than one way to hug and chalk.