The Most American Meal Possible: The McGangBang

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter

UPDATE: I ate one.


The Yin and Yang of food manifest. Along with hard drugs, unprotected sex, sky diving, literally playing with fire, and all other good things, the McGangBang is awesome, yet could kill you.


If you put the KFC Double Down in there too you should call it the McCaligula. If that doesn't roll off the tongue for you, I would also suggest the McI'veLostTheWillToLive.


click here to support the fighting of childhood obesity.




That's how I roll.

Gene Keady, How Could You?

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

Growing up in Indiana in the 80's and 90's, I became a fan of (then) Purdue basketball coach Gene Keady.

But then I read this headline and it REALLY pissed me off: Gene makes People fat, Raises Alzheimer's Risk(!!!!!!).

What a dick. So does he hide in people's houses and slip bacon and aluminum and mercury in people's diets? He really could use some gene therapy. total a-hole. But I will say this; the man does good work, especially in Chicago. My hat is off to him for his job making Chicagoans obese. All I have heard about you is true, Gene: you're one hell of a competitor.






That's how I roll.

Where Fat Kids Come From

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter





It's great to see my man Jamie Oliver doing my second favorite form of fighting childhood obesity*. I think he's doing God's work and I hope his movement catches on. When an English dude comes to America to help out our obese children, you gotta respect that.


* denotes- This is my favorite kind.







That's how I roll.

Jamie Oliver Talking the Truth at TED

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

I loved this guy when he was just The Naked Chef. His new anti-obesity mission about food education is probably my favorite cause out there now. Great speech here.










That's how I roll.

Highly Insightful Article

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


Yahoo had a newstory witht he headline, "Children Who Get Spanked Have Lower IQs". After thinking about this for zero seconds I thought, "Uhhhh, yeah. That's why they got spanked." They were stupid enough to get caught doing something they were stupdi enough to do stupidly. Lets not confuse cause and effect here that lead us to make excuses for the kids.

Next I expect to find the headline, "The Trauma of Childhood Obesity Causes Overweight Children to Lose Footraces on American Playgrounds".








That's how I roll.

Fat Taboo

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com

I won't say the name, but a fat guy that I admired recently died. He was fairly old, and pretty fat, so his death isn't shocking. Had he been skinnier, this would have been a relatively early death. But he was fat, so it was understood.

Had he been a life-long smoker, I'm sure that would have somehow been snuck into his obituary. Maybe they'd say, "...a life-long smoker, he devoted his spare time to friends and gardening.", or perhaps, "He succumbed to a battle with cancer after being a longtime smoker.". Then after the broadcast of his death, countless parents would then turn to their children and say, "See, that's why you shouldn't smoke." and of course they would be right.

But he was obese. That eluded all the eulogies I heard. No mention of, "with blood-pressure of 180/140, he was a family man, especially in his later years.". I doubt many parents will turn to their kids and say, "See, that's why you should order the chicken salad with oil and vinegar dressing on the side, and not a cheeseburger with mayonnaise and french fries."

Why is that? How is that not fair game? Our society loves thinking that addiction (tobacco, alcohol, other drugs) is indicative of a weakness and is 100% the fault of the addicted party. But our society also seems to look the other way with obesity, as though it accidentally happened, or is somehow outside of one's locus of control.

Put more scholarly, addiction happens in active voice, obesity in the passive voice.

Dave suffered from obesity vs. Dave was decades-long user of heroin. It's never the inverse- Dave suffered from a heroin addiction vs. Dave was life-long obese man.

"After years of smoking 2 packs a day, Mr. Robertson died of heart failure." You hear hear that, but not, "After decades of eating unnecessarily fried foods, liberal use of cheese and a love of empty carbs, Mr. Robertson passed away." Not sure why that is.

Another example of this double standard is the simple test of saying it to someone's face. When you see a friend or relative light up a cigarette, it's ok to say, "When are you gonna quit that crap, man?", or, "Do you know how much money you waste in cigarettes?" or even the popular judgement-as-a-flirtation-vehicle, "You're too pretty to smoke." If you say any of those, you fall somewhere between being correct, yet out of line, and a good friend who has the guts to say what needs to be said. However, if your obese friend orders veal scallopini instead of grilled chicken and you say, "Why are you trying to get fatter than you already are?", or "So when will you be fat enough?","You already achieved obesity. How 'bout you tone it down some, huh?", or "Is it a heart attack or stroke you lust after?", you are soulless, petty, supercifial, mean-spirited, and just needlessly cruel. How is that less noble than the cigarette mini-intervention? What's the difference betwen, "Dude, you're drunk. You don't need another scotch." And, "You're obese, you don't need fried chicken."?

The only reason for the double standard that I can think of is the guilty-pleasure's impact on physical appearance. Fat people are fat, but addicts can come in any shape. Put differently, fatness is displayed outwardly. Since fatness is accepted as unsexy, when you bring that to light (as though it were previously unknown) you are, by definition, assailing someone's sexual attractiveness which is uncalled for. But it existed before you mentioned it. And if you mentioned it and it were untrue, there would be no harm in your inaccurate appraisal, much like you when you call me an ugly babboon with herpes, I take no offense. I'm not a babboon.

Ok, I don't have herpes either (ladies, you know my email address!).

So it is somehow offensive to point out what everyone else can plainly see. How does that work? If you call a 50 year-old female smoker, a "cigarette addict", she'll either say "Yeah. So?", "Duh?" or, "screw you". If you call an obese 50-year old woman, "obese", she will cry. The only reason I can see for that is related to sexual attraction. It feels as though you're saying, "People find me more sexually appealing than they find you.". But that's just as objective as calling someone a smoker or an addict. How is that less "called-for"?

Same people say obesity is an addiction to food. Some claim that it's lack of will power, while other's claim that it's a function of poor education and/or poverty. You're also likely to hear that it may be a genetic pre-disposition. Sometimes though, it's just related to stress- comfort food, ya know? Those don't sound very different from the reasons people get caught up in addiction.

If your 5-year old tells a stranger on the street, "eww you smoke! Gross!", it's mildly rude, but at the same time it's true and maybe, just maybe, the smoker will take it to heart. But if he tells a fatty, "eww you're fat! Gross!" you're child is rude, poorly controlled, and in need of better parenting. But is your child any less right?


Great people can be obese, and great people can be drug addicts. Those will forever be parts of human nature, and those do not make people bad people. Conversely, If you make fun of someone's acne, crooked teeth or economic standard- that's petty. But obesity and addiction kill people. That's why I don't think it's rude to say, "hey man, how about you just get a turkey sandwich on wheat and not a Philly cheesesteak?". Cheesesteaks kill people too.

Where Awesome Happens Public Service Announcement

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com

I've decided to make childhood obesity my new cause. Once I decided on a cause, I read a lot of literature on the current statistics, causes, potential cures, etc. The overwhelming conclusion is that the most effective way to fight childhood obesity is with better nutrition, smaller meal portions and increased physical activity. Any type of physical activity helps- walking, sports, bike riding, skateboarding, etc.

Then I saw a video on YouTube that confirmed the conclusions of the experts so conclusively that I couldn't help by laugh aloud: skateboards are extremely effective for warding off the advancements of childhood obesity. Have a look.




UPDATE: I was writing this entry, and at the bottom of the entry I have to type in the "Labels" or "Tags" for this article. So I was gonna type in "childhood obeseity" and once I was partway through, my server suggested "Fighting Childhood Obesity" since it had been used previously. I didn't recall using it, so I checked out the article where it was used. It's eerily similar to this one.

This proves that I've still got it!

The Where Awesome Happens Holiday Cause: Fighting Childhood Obesity

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com


As a youth I was lucky to have avoided childhood obesity. My parents did a great job of providing healthy meals and teaching us kids about nutrition. It also helps I was interested in playing sports and staying physically active, but I realize that my parents had a much bigger hand in my childhood fitness than I did. Sadly, it seems that nowadays it seems that fewer and fewer kids are as lucky as I was in that regard. I frequently see children in public that, as a kid, would have been considered chubby, but today just appear normal.

Countless Psychological studies link childhood obesity to everything from low self-esteem and decreased life-expectancy to earning less money as adults. Since I primarily blame the parents for childhood obesity, and given how ignoring nutrition and exercise can manifest itself later in life, I am determined to fight childhood obesity.

When it comes to fixing such a widespread problem, everyone has an opinion. Some people feel that the best way to do this would be to adopt Switzerland's banning of marketing to children, others would prefer to see health classes taught at the elementary school level, and those are just two of the myriad of possibilities.

The Where Awesome Happens strategy? I will let these videos speak for my favorite way to fight childhood obesity.




















You'll just have to pretend this guy is an obese kid, cuz this is really hilarious.