You sho' is ugly!

OK...this is a rant!

In The Color Purple, Celie is waiting at the front door as Albert, her husband, brings home Shug Avery, the love of his life, for her to take care of. Celie's anxious to see what this woman of legendary beauty and talent must look like.

Shug, happy drunk that she is, looks into Celie's eyes for the first time and says with a laugh...

oh, just check out 3:40 on this clip

So, why is it that people feel free to say things like that when they aren't drunk? These days society tries to be more accepting of our differences. Call it PC but it's the way it should be.

Today I was gathering my mail at the community mailbox as Baldwin sniffed around picking up his P-mail, adding his own commentary and moving on to the next bush.

One of my neighbors stopped and said "Have you lost more weight?"

Buying into the proposition that it was any of her business I explained that I'd actually gained 8 pounds according to the doctor's scale this week.

She then said I was too thin...that I might be trying too hard to lose weight... I needed to gain back that weight I'd lost a year ago. She went on happily that a guy my age should be heavier, and ended by saying I didn't look good "this thin".

I am 6'2" on a good day with dress shoes on and weigh 204 pounds. I ain't gonna be blowing away like a plastic bag anytime soon. I did lose 20-25 lbs a year ago when I got tired of taking the cholesterol and blood pressure meds. I take a bag of healthy food to nosh on all day at work(fruit, yogurt, juice, or whatever isn't chips or junk). I don't eat out of machines or at potlucks or anything like that. My rule is that I can only eat what's in the bag! My office staff, god love 'em, will slip a good home made cookie into the bag ince in a while since they are my weakness. The result has been that I am hungrier when I get home. I actually eat dinner and then am done eating.

It shows you how poorly I was eating that the weight came off quickly. My cholesterol went from 220 to 132. My blood pressure came down. AND I fit in the same size pants I wore in college. I abhor exercising! I was a fat teenager. I've been as much as 60 lbs heavier as an adult than I am now. But this time the weight, the cholesterol, the blood pressure came down because I changed my eating habits at work. I know...I'm lucky.

But are all American men supposed to be paunchy and bloated? Is it because so many people struggle to get their weight down that it's okay to make commentary on someone else's thinner frame? Is a thinner person's body up for public commentary?

Steven Jobs introduced the new iPhone this week. I've read several commentaries on it and one actually went on for several sentences saying he was too thin and no 53 year old man should be that thin. Who says? Look at Europe! They aren't like us. You can always spot the Americans by their white tennis shoes and their big guts. Is that really a model we need to strive for?

I almost wanted to say to neighbor that she should follow my lead and lose some herself!

"That ass is looking a little wide, Margaret!"
But that would be rude! Right?