Last year during Thanksgiving, I was in the middle of a diet.  While it wasn't overly restrictive, it didn't allow Brie, Manchego, bluefish pate (made with cream cheese and cognac), cornbread stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes (made with heavy cream and butter), pumpkin pie, app… Read full post »

In the course of a lifetime, all of us must grapple with the fundamental questions of existence:  Is there a meaning to life?  Why do bad things happen to good people?  What is beyond a bed and a bath?  For the habitual dieter, there is an additional enigma to confront: "Why/… Read full post »

Generally, you know you need to diet before hearing it from your doctor.  Some signs are obvious - a ballooning gut, increasingly tight clothes, and the inability to climb a flight of stairs without sounding like both partners in an X-rated movie.  Yet people are resourceful at disguising t… Read full post »

 It's been just over two years since my father-in-law, Morey Hunter, passed away at the age of ninety.  During the thirty-five years that I knew him, he never once spoke voluntarily about his service during World War II.

For Morey not to speak about a subject was unusual.&nb… Read full post »

Daily, if not more often, I am enjoined by my spouse or well-meaning friends not to eat "that junk."  But what is it that makes certain foods junk?  Content?  Origin?  The scorn of Alice Waters?  I've recently come to the conclusion that the stigma is more abstract than gastr… Read full post »

At the tender age of fourteen, I abandoned hearth, home, tube, and fridge and went off to boarding school for three years.  When I arrived at Williston Academy in the fall of 1964, I was a chubby lad of 160 lbs., but after three months, I was… Read full post »

Herewith, a short meditation on candy, the prime focus of this weekend's festivities. 

It is said that some folks whistle past graveyards; I have the same reaction to candy vending machines.  In both cases, we sense these are places where no good can befall us and should we end up… Read full post »

A recent study by Paul Johnson and Paul Kenny of the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida has shown that feeding junk food to rats results in the same addictive behavior as in humans.

 "Johnson fed rats either a standard diet of high-nutrient, low-calorie chow, or unlimited amounts of… Read full post »

I hadn't planned on ranting today -  I mean, who really plans these things.  But circumstances have brought me to the point of eruption, and like Pompeii, somebody's criuisin' for a lava bath.

That somebody is any one of a thousand potential employers who have decided that my skills and… Read full post »

Autumn has arrived, and with it, crisp apples, fresh cider, and clogged gutters.  New Englanders are nailing Indian corn to their doors while the sound of metal rakes on sidewalks drives psychopaths to serial murder.  With winter on the way, squirrels scurry about, collecting acorns and sto… Read full post »

Who doesn't love a good list?  Thanks mostly to David Letterman's "Top Ten," the list is fast replacing the expository essay as the literary form of choice for periodicals.  Everyone benefits.  The reader is spared long-winded explanations, grandstanding commentary, and pointless flour… Read full post »

The recent return of NBC's The Biggest Loser has generated some interesting criticism.  Amanda Vogel, a certified fitness professional, has provided a thorough analysis of the show's training methods on the IDEA Health & Fitness Association website.1  Among the concerns of her sour… Read full post »

Dance around the issue all you want - the core principle of all diets is abstinence.  Sooner or later you're going to crave something you're not supposed to eat.  Welcome to the moral crises of the overweight.

In the initial stages of weight loss, these acts of denial become a… Read full post »

In my opinion, the three most unpleasant expressions in the English language are, "There's smoke pouring out of your hood", "Somebody from the IRS called", and "Oh, that looks great.  Can I have a bite?"  And frankly, I'm far more tolerant of greedy auto mechanics and rapacious tax auditors… Read full post »

We Americans love our mythic history more than our actual history.  This is understandable since real history is ambiguous and unpleasant while national myths are reassuring and optimistic.  They are feel-good fantasies promulgated to boost civic pride and, like all myths ancient… Read full post »