I’ve gotten a lot of good emails from readers the last few days:
- A pretty solid Bobo impersonation (could be slightly better but the tone is dead on) from that new Onion NYT parody all the kids are talking about (from reader J)
- Sitting for hours a day is bad for you. This is a bit of a fixation of mine, I’ve always felt that this was the case and have made a fetish of getting up from my desk every hour or so (from reader F).
- And finally, the big gubmint looters at the US Postal service are helping moochers get by by delivering food directly to the strapping young bucks. You can learn more at the link. I just gave $100 — you can also leave non-perishable food out on Saturday. Guess the non-perishable part rules out T-bones. Call it fiat food, I guess. (From another reader F.)
Just Some Fuckhead
People really send exercise emails to strangers? Are you sure you aren’t being spammed?
Doug Harlan J
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Ha ha.
srv
The studies say lots of excercise doesn’t make much difference.
Why I’m getting a standing table.
Comrade Javamanphil
About 1/3 of my company has converted to standing offices over the last few months. I think it may be time for me to as well.
Gus
Fortunately with an aging bladder and a serious coffee habit, I have no choice but to get up at least every hour.
arguingwithsignposts
Here’s a good one: The Hard Knock Life of An Internet Troll. I posted it below, but since this is sorta an OT.
Culture of Truth
Is there a Fiat Food Commission?
4jkb4ia
@arguingwithsignposts:
Ow.
That Bobo thing really was dead on. It hit all the tropes.
gene108
The Brooks parody’s great! So much like the real thing.
BGK
OK, if sitting is bad because it “makes [us] fat,” how is it worse than laying down? Every calorie-activity table I’ve ever seen shows lying prone metabolizes the fewest calories. The article from the link says exercise doesn’t matter. OK, is that exercising while maintaining the same body fat percentage? Exercising to reduce body fat? I guess I could follow the source links in the article but I really can’t get away with that much off-topic reading while seated at work.
RossInDetroit
I walk so much at work that my toenails die and fall off. At 52 years old I’ve never been so fit in my life. Desk work made me miserable, though rather more financially comfortable.
handy
@4jkb4ia:
I love the DuMont brand reference and the “latest episodes of Lost and The Shield” thrown on top of that. Good stuff.
Just Some Fuckhead
@RossInDetroit: Lemme guess, yer an ENTP.
Nylund
I wonder if guys like Brooks and Friedman read the satire pieces that mock them. Does their ego drive them to read every google result with their name in it? Or do they live in a bubble unaware of the mockery? Do they easily dismiss the ramblings of what they consider to be lesser minds? Do they think themselves to be the lone bright stars of modern intellect? or do they realize that a great many people find their pieces simplistic and laughable? Do they believe their own nonsense, or do they knowingly string together nonsense psycho-babble and bad metaphors simply as an easy way to secure an absurdly large paycheck and unjust amount of public attention and adoration?
I’d really love to meet one of them and find out how self-aware they actually are.
Culture of Truth
Ok, that Brooks thing was pretty funny
Mark S.
Speaking of Bobo:
Bobo’s not a Republican? As for the other part, I of course have heard racist things from Democrats, but I’ve sure heard them more when I’m with a bunch of Republicans. But I probably don’t go to the same parties as Bobo.
Mnemosyne
Geez, who did they get to draw that infographic, Jack Chick? If you sit down YOU WILL DIE!
If working at a desk job kills you within 15 years — which is what the claim seems to be — I should be dead by now.
ETA: Of course, I’m probably partially protected by my ADHD — I rarely sit still even when I’m sitting down.
Rommie
Well duh, Some People would tell you that the US Postal Service are experts at Big Gubmint Looting, so it’s a natural that they’d support some other group of moochers.
ruemara
OT: Please, please tell me GG is just trolling us. He’s a smart guy who knows things. He cannot be equating killing Osama bin Laden with killing Barack Obama. This just has to be satire that a guy who specializes in law doesn’t understand that a head of state and a head of a terror organization aren’t the same thing.
Valdivia
OMG, the BOBO thing is full of win. I can’t even begin to count the ways this thing slaughters him.
Joel
Doug, how do you donate money to the food drive? I feel that donating goods is a waste of money (because the shelters have much stronger buying power).
jeffreyw
Shit, I guess I’ll have to forgo the cheese next time.
Doug Harlan J
@RossInDetroit:
I just feel better when I walk a lot, always have. But I have no reason to at work.
Doug Harlan J
@Joel:
You can give at the Feeding America site.
Chris
@Mark S.:
Not my experience. Though my experience tends to cover “bigotry” in general more than racism specifically… a Republican is far more likely to advocate racial or religious profiling, to defend things like the internment of Japanese-Americans or the ethnic cleansing of Indians in the far west, to say “I would not vote for a Muslim just because he’s a Muslim,” to refuse to live in a black or Hispanic neighborhood specifically because it’s black or Hispanic… the list goes on.
I’ve read it from Republican pundits, bloggers, authors and politicians and I’ve heard it from Republican friends and family over the course of my entire life, to a vastly greater degree than I’ve heard it from Democrats. Actually, it was so recurring and consistent a theme coming from them that back when I was a political noob and an independent, that was one of the key things that turned me off and pushed me towards the other side of the aisle.
And Bobo would have to be willfully blind, lying through his teeth, or too detached to even understand what bigotry is to have not noticed it.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Mark S.:
Jesus, he’s stupid. Of course he hears the same thing at both mythological gatherings. He’s freaking white. If he was a person of color, he wouldn’t be at one of the gatherings in the first fucking place.
Poopyman
@Just Some Fuckhead: This place is loaded with _NTPs, but my guess is most are INTP.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne: Uhh…someone needs to tell those folks that correlation is not causation. Like the fact that the American diet changed in the last 30 years. And caloric load has also greatly increased. The factors involved in the increase of the obseity rate are rather numerous. But oh noes we can solve all this by
magicjust moving more at work! Seriously?@Poopyman: INFJ, if we’re all gonna come out of the Meyers-Briggs closet.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
He got smacked down by Fred Clark at Slacktivist, of all people. He’s not usually the smacking-down type, but Greenwald got to him.
Mnemosyne
@Yutsano:
It’s true that being sedentary is bad for you, but, as the poet-mortician Thomas Lynch likes to say, the mortality rate in the United States is holding steady at 100 percent. It’s not like you’re going to escape death as long as you get a standing desk at work.
ETA: IIRC, being sedentary is worse for you than being overweight/obese. If you’re reasonably active (minimum 30-45 minutes a day) but overweight, you’ll have better health outcomes than someone who’s normal weight but sedentary.
Valdivia
another winner from the parody of the NYT
http://www.thefinaledition.com/article/newscorp-acquires-entire-english-language.html
FSM these people are funny.
dmsilev
This is hilarious. A bunch of GOP freshman reps are so worried about being attacked for their Medicare-killing votes that they’ve written to President Obama to ask him to call off the attack ads.
Whiny little twits, aren’t they?
Chris
@dmsilev:
“I must’ve hit pretty close to the mark to get her all riled up like that, huh, kid?”
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Sorry, OT, but I found this quote amazing:
So, let me get this straight – Bush tried to privatize Social Security and tie it to the stock market and the Republicans in Congress just voted to turn Medicare into a voucher program but this woman isn’t going to vote for Obama because the continued sustainability of Medicare and Social Security is her pet issue?
slag
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: When I first read your comment, I thought that quote was from the Brooks parody. Funny, yet sad.
Mark S.
@Chris:
And they are always dying to talk about it. The slightest little thing will have them talking about race. A recent conversation I had with a FOX news-watching Republican:
Me: Boy, our local sports team sure played good last night. Did you see the game?
Him: I can’t stand watching blacks play basketball. All they do is showboat. They’ve really ruined the game.
Yutsano
@dmsilev: There is nothing better than the sweet taste of wingnut tears for breakfast in the morning I tells ya.
@Mnemosyne: No one gets out of life alive, to crudely paraphrase Lynch there. The real reason to take care of your body is to enjoy the existence that you have at this time. As one who believes in reincarnation, I have no clue what the next step will hold for me. But I’m kinda hoping I come back as a Finn.
Chris
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
Yeah… I have little to no sympathy for people like that.
jibeaux
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
I don’t think you’re going to be able to get anything straight there from a POV that says “I am going to have to work forever because I have to pay into these money-losing programs that make it possible for people to eventually stop working without eating cat food and rationing their insulin…”
MikeJ
@Chris:
Paedophiles always use that argument.
Cris (without an H)
But the studies also say prolonged periods of sitting are a large part of the problem. So they tell you to take “small frequent breaks” to break up the periods of inactivity. And that’s exactly what DougJ says he does.
I’m not finding a lot of detail on what “frequent” means (every hour? every couple of hours? every fifteen minutes?) but then I’m not trying very hard.
Mnemosyne
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
As long as you understand that membership in her tribe is more important than her own well-being, it makes perfect sense.
bk
I don’t think that the Onion had anything to do with the NYT “Final Edition” parody. Take a look at the writers; a lot of them have Harvard Lampoon backgrounds.
Chris
@Mark S.:
Making a defiant stand against the political correctness that defiles our nation… or something. The grown up equivalent of the kid or teenager who says something for shock value just to get attention.
OTOH, because that kind of talk is supposed to be taboo, people like that will also leap on you the second they suspect you might be sympathetic to their views. “Finally, I can get this off my chest!”
WereBear
This is sadly, true. And I discovered recently some of it goes over my head; my partner’s uncle took exception to some of his political statements on Facebook. I followed my partner’s finger to a phrase saying, “You and your Obama-loving attitudes have ruined this fine country.”
Me: “Well, that’s typical Faux News crap. Sure, we support the President–”
Him: “No, no, the phrase he used!”
Me: “What do you” as my brain replaces Obama with something I heard all the time living in the South… “Oh. Crap. That’s terrible!”
RossInDetroit
@Doug Harlan J:
Walking/hiking used to be my favorite exercise. Now I run the custodial staff at 3 school buildings. Emphasis on the ‘run’.
gene108
Question: If sitting down is bad for you, would lying down be better? :-)
Wag
David Brooks’ version of No man is an Island. So full of win that I can’t stand is.
Can't Be Bothered
That bobo parody was amaaazing. I’ve been waiting so long for someone to satirize him in long form like that. That piece knocked it out of the fucking park.
J Frank Parnell
Loved the Bobo parody. Did it make anyone else think of the late/lamented Jon Swift?
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
the cooking with anne liebowitz is as good as the brooks parody, or is that brooks uplugged?
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@WereBear:
lol, that is funny, i occasionally troll the blog of a fired/retired long time pittsburgh local news sports anchor, today’s topic, how he hasn’t watched the nba in 25 years, and how he still believes pete maravich was the best basketball player ever.
its amazing how ridiculously naive and wingnutty a person who was at least near even local news for 30 years could be. so transparent in their beliefs and opinions, yet sincerely unaware of how they come across.
that plus excerpts from tucker and nro lovingly rendered with out a hint of thoughtful analysis.
its fun melting the sensors, but credit where its due, he could just ban me.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Doug Harlan J: Or you can “like” the cause on Facebook LINK to do just that
and the Campbell Soup Co. will donate a pound of food to Feeding America, up to 1 million pounds. That’s leveraging the power of social media to support a good cause. I’ve got 2 of my social media clients set to announce that on their business Facebook pages, and invite their fans to like the cause tonight.Pangloss
Strapping young bucks are often seen sitting for hours waiting for the postman to deliver their food at the Applebee’s salad bar.
HeartlandLiberal
We recently bought a computer desk that is designed for user to stand while using the computer, this for my wife. After about six weeks of use, primarily playing Dragon Age 2, she feels that the benefits of standing as opposed to sitting all day are really making themselves evident. Note that we are talking someone who is 65, and in pretty good shape, but dealing with some fairly serious arthritis in one hip. Note also that we are BOTH now doing a whole series of exercises she learned in physical therapy recently to build the muscles that support the knees and the hips, and we can both already tell it is helping with the onset of arthritis due to aging.
So. Eat right. Loose weight. Exercise. And don’t just sit on that rear end all day. Words to live longer by.
Curtis Stinnett
Long time lurker.
I’m a long time mailman in Roswell, NM. Yeah, I know. Two strikes towards crazy right there.
The truth is worse than you think. The food drive described in such colorful terms is actually sponsored by a union. The National Association of Letter Carriers originated this. The Gubmint (USPS) is kind enough to allow us to help.
The local branches of the union decide where the food goes. It’s a good cause. Give!
Steeplejack
Testing on an old thread . . .
Does this do what I want it to do?