Wake Me Up in 20 Years

I forgot I had a weblog.  Do they still even call it that anymore? I feel like I have just awakened from a coma, not that I would know how that feels, and everything is somehow different.  How, I’m not sure. I haven’t changed that much, but the country seems to have grown just a little more fearful and distrustful, which has lead to big Repub gains and control of both houses – wait is the senate a house or just a chamber?  Can a house be a chamber?  Have you seen the latest red state map showing all the victories?  What a bloodbath!  Must give the Dems the blues.  But as red as the map is, I saw another map that looks as green as the lushest rainforest (which unfortunately no longer exists) showing states that have legalized or are considering the legalization of pot.  It may actually be true that the country has gone to pot or hell in a hand basket, whatever that means.

Meanwhile, I’ve been living slightly off the grid and quite out of touch, somewhat unplugged so to speak. I’ve been reading more and watching less TV now that we’ve stripped down to basic cable, which ironically means that we don’t get any cable channels.  Used to be if you had cable you got everything there was, which wasn’t much, but you got it with one push of the button on that brown cable box. Now basic cable, at least in our monopolistic market, gives you the nothing but the big networks, PBS and some local stuff that airs city council meetings and reruns of Lassie. We pay for ABC, CBS and NBC that I believe would have been free before the time of cable and should be today with all the ads they run.  TV really used to be plug and play back in the day.

But I digress.  Actually, I don’t digress because I don’t really have a point to make in any of this.  I’m just trying to shake out, or is it shake off, the coma cobwebs.  It’s a new morning and I’m having a hard time getting out of bed. The Repubs will try their hand at governing which could be disastrous if they continue to deny science and with a wink, frack us all to kingdom come. Maybe I’ll just go back into my toasty coma. Wake me up in 20 years.

Kellog’s Unfit for a Champion

Ok, Michael took a bong hit.  Who cares?  Kellog’s certainly does and quickly dropped its endorsement deal with Phelps.  Kellog’s says that his behavior is not consistent with the image of the company.  And I would have to agree.

Kellog’s is one of the world’s largest purveyors of junk food. When I think of Kellog’s, I think of Toucan Sam and Fruit Loops, Pop Tarts and Cheez-Its,  not Michael Phelps, arguably the fittest athlete in the world, and the greatest Olympian of all time.   Do elite athletes really load up on a diet rich in Kellog’s?

One cup of Fruit Loops contains 12.5 grams of sugar; a pair of Pop Tarts – 16 grams.   What a grand rush to start off the day.  And Cheez-Its;  those delicious morsels oozing with fat and sodium.  How about a handful of Hydrox cookies as a reward for a long hard day of work?  Is this dietary behavior consistent with the image of a champion athlete?

And this business of role model – give him a break.  Michael Phelps is no role model.  He is freak of nature, an athlete like no other who has spent more time in the water than out of it the last 10 years.  He’s raised the bar too high for all those kids on the Kellog’s diet who aspire to his athletic feats.  The average kid would be better served hitting the books and eating a proper breakfast.  Life is more than a workout and a bowl of Corn Flakes.