Maybe I shouldn’t write a blog tonight. Maybe I should take a day off. Why? Well, because I’m pissed. I’m not pissed at the world like most people get. I usually go through life taking it as it comes. I learned today that someone who owes me a lot of money simply won’t pay it back. I know we live in a world now where no one is accountable for anything. It’s always someone else’s problem. But that doesn’t stop me from being pissed. I probably should erase that and start over, but I’m not. It’s my blog. Writing it and leaving it makes me feel better. To be honest, I don’t give a rat’s ass what anyone else thinks about it. But I digress. I got a call from a friend a few weeks ago. Let’s call her Suzanne because that’s what her name is. I’ve known her for the better part of 20 years. When we first met she was a VP at Playboy in the video and television distribution department. Like most VPs, Suzanne is a smart woman. Let’s face it, you don’t get to that level by being an idiot. Though we’re not close friends, we’ve stayed in touch through the years, basically through other friends in the corporation. I’ve often said everyone I know in L.A. can be linked back to Playboy in some way. More recently, my friend Andy (the contributor who writes the recipes for this blog) moved back from England. Andy, also a one-time VP at the same company, is still close with Suzanne and her husband. For that reason, I’ve seen more of her than ever. I told you that to tell you this. Suzanne sent me a Facebook message a couple of weeks back. She told me she was going to Europe a couple of weeks. On her return, she wanted to have a conversation with me about a frightening subject – childhood obesity in America today. I couldn’t wait for my friend to return from overseas. This is a subject that both fascinates and angers me. When I left New Orleans 20 years ago, I had a lot going on. I was the fitness coordinator for a prestigious private school. It was my job to keep all of the athletes from the different sports in shape so all their coaches would have to do is coach. That worked out well. There was no shortage of state championships during my time at Newman. I’m not taking any of the credit, but I’m proud to say I was a part of the kids’ lives at the time. From swimming and gymnastics, to football, baseball and basketball, to volleyball, track and cross country, I was involved in it all. I had a bi-weekly radio show on WSMB called Talking Fitness. I constantly addressed what I saw as an up-and-coming epidemic. I didn’t call it childhood obesity, I called it back then a bunch of fat kids. I also had private clients. I already had overweight kids on my schedule. I moved to L.A. with one main idea in my back pocket. In short, it was to bring media attention to what I thought was a new epidemic – overweight kids. I took meetings at several big TV studios, owned by the likes of Disney, Nickelodeon (young at the time) and all of the Big Three networks. They all listened intently to my ideas. But all came away with the same feeling. When I would show a proposal for a Saturday morning show telling kids to get out and do things, they would laugh me out the building. They didn’t want kids out doing things, they wanted them in front of the television. When I said kids had to be taught to have better diets, again, once the laughing stopped, they replied that they’d never put a show on telling them not to eat lots of sugar. How would they sell their sugary products on commercials? Sure, we have no shortage of people, places and things to point fingers at for causing childhood obesity. I realize that P.E. programs have all been cut out of schools. I understand the latch-key kid problem. They end up eating anything and everything. I guess I’m just showing one other place where the finger should be pointed. By the way, both of these networks now pay lip service to the very thing they laughed at 20 years ago. Sorry I’m so angry tonight, but hey, I’m usually angry. I guess that’s why so many people read my blog…I think.
