Seriously, go find someone who wants an external conscience and volunteer to help them. Assuming everyone needs your "assist" is prickish and invasive.

Pretty much.

Ugh, ita, I'm so sorry you're in so much pain.

I know I have a fast metabolism, Nora. One of the few breaks I got at birth(Which still, incidentally, does not truly mean that I eat "whatever I want" but it does mean that I don't sweat my weight much.) Bourdain's metabolism blows mine out of the water, clearly. I could never eat that much beer-and-gonads. Most shows end with a hangover segment...Polly Purebread finds that a little disturbing. Paula Deen may be a TV personality with a bully pulpit of sorts and opportunities but I think she speaks to people who aren't getting paid to globetrot.

The shaming around Paula Deen seems to be related a lot to class issues, too. I mean, having a fancy steak with a bleu cheese sauce and some bread on the side is more or less nutritionally equivalent to having a cheeseburger, but the people who make and eat the cheeseburger get a whole lot more "You're making yourself fat and sick" shaming than the people who make and eat the steak do.

ALL YOUR TIM TAMS ARE BELONG TO ME.

Even the Tia Maria Tim Tams? I think not!

My office Christmas party saw us take a field trip to the local wine region. It was a pleasant day all up (and I got my Biblical analysis on with my boss), but one of my coworkers, for reasons that defy my understanding, decided it was appropriate for him to tell me I should stop drinking so much Coke Zero, in order to lose weight. Do I drink a lot of Coke Zero? Yes. Yes I do. Is it any of his damn business? No, it is not. (And may I add, step off my food.)

In tangentially related news, I did my regular medical and dental check-ups, this week, and got a clean bill of health. Very happy about that, especially the dental check-up. Due to various factors, it's been three years since my last visit, and I'm not the most fastidious about flossing. (Plus, did I mention about the Coke Zero?)

The shaming around Paula Deen seems to be related a lot to class issues, too.

Hells yes. And regional ones, which in this case are pretty much exactly the same thing.

totally,Hil. Or the quail eggs and pig snouts, like my man Bourdain.(Sometimes he reminds me of those guys who write into Dan Savage that can only get off pressed close to a bathmat or covered in maple syrup or something.) But I've mentioned that before.

I could never eat that much beer-and-gonads.

Seriously, my brother IS Tony Bourdain, 20 years younger. No joke. If he could get paid to travel the world and eat pig's anus tartare, he would.

one of my coworkers, for reasons that defy my understanding, decided it was appropriate for him to tell me I should stop drinking so much Coke Zero, in order to lose weight.

But...Coke Zero has no calories. That's why it's Zero!

(Lard Glug: contains neither lard nor glug.)

But...Coke Zero has no calories. That's why it's Zero!

I know! I lost over 10 kilos when I switched to Coke Zero from regular Coke! I'm not sure (read: don't care) what his reasoning was. I recall some vague suggestion that drinking diet sodas can give someone a sweet tooth, so they consume more sugar asidde from the diet drinks. I would be concerned with that if I hadn't had a sweet tooth for all of living memory.

For me - it's not the fact of the diabetes but the fact that she is going to be making a buttload of money off of it. It's just another part of her empire.

I would say that takes "synergy" into overdrive myself, Sumi.