Olde Posts Addenda (4)

 More "Breaking News" to add to the older news items already provided in Mulcahy's Miscellany. 

Excessive Drinking - OF WATER!
   Back in 2021 I questioned whether we really needed to carry a large bottle of water with us when we drove to the 7-Eleven to get a Slurpee (see "Hydration: Going Against the Current.") I don't get out much, but apparently students are still putting canteens in their backpacks and carrying large water jugs for the short distance between seminars.
   This was noticed by Frank Bruni who writes for The New York Times. When he was asked to characterize the students at Duke, where he teaches, he offered this description in his weekly newsletter. He makes the point I was trying to make in my hydration post, but he does a better job, which is why he writes for the NYT and I don't. It is really quite good and is found in the Newsletter on Nov.21, 2024:

   "What’s most remarkable about my students isn’t their wokeness or pre-professionalism. It’s their sogginess. They drink water constantly. They carry water everywhere. If the young people who fought in World War II were the Greatest Generation, the young people pursuing their bachelor’s degrees today are the Moistest one. They live on the cusp of some imagined desert, beside an oasis that’s their last call.

Sometimes I glance at the desks in a lecture hall or the big table in a seminar room and think I’m looking at an art exhibit of Exotic Cylinders. There are improbably tall, slender water vessels and squatter, wider ones, though almost all taper at the base, the better to fit into the cup holders of cars and cardio equipment. They are shiny and matte, turquoise and lavender, their provenance imprinted on them in distinctive fonts. Here a Corkcicle or an Owala, there a Stanley or a Yeti.

Those brand names are a clue that part of what I’m seeing is pure commercialism: If you build it, they will fill it with water. Canny entrepreneurs have turned the frumpy canteens of yesteryear, associated with cowboys and mountaineers, into the spiffy fashion statements of today, dangling from student knapsacks and essential for any vigorous Peloton session.

But there’s more to it than that. There are principles, politics: The refillable Hydro Flask or ThermoFlask replaces the disposable plastic receptacle and represents scrupulous stewardship of the environment. There are economics: A beloved, portable vessel with water from a tap obviates an Evian or a Dasani from the convenience store refrigerator case.

And there is self-care, an ineluctable phrase that didn’t exist — or had negligible exposure — when I attended college. My students correctly wager that health-wise, including skin-wise, hydration is best, so lugging around liquid sustenance is a kind of personal optimization. It abets peak performance. Along with a dewy complexion.

I reflect on my desiccated youth — when there were old-style water fountains rather than newfangled water stations, and I had to bend over and slurp up enough to last me several hours — and feel foolish and cheated, the improbable survivor of a parched and primitive time. I now understand why my fellow boomers and I made a mess of the world, and the generations after ours should cut us some slack. We were thirsty."

Excessive Eating - The Obesity Epidemic
  More recently in, "Weighing In" obesity was observed and proof is now offered in: "Three-Quarters of U.S. Adults Are Now Overweight or Obese: A Sweeping New Paper Revels the Dramatic Rise of Obesity Rates Nationwide Since 1990," Nina Agrawal, The New York Times, Nov. 14, 2024. Definitions are offered for the plus-sized people and I will have to check and see if I belong to that growing crowd:The paper defined “overweight” adults as those who were age 25 and over with a body mass index at or over 25, and “obese” adults as those with a B.M.I. at or over 30.
The "sweeping new paper" is found in The Lancet, "National-level and state-level prevalence of overweight and obesity among children, adolescents, and adults in the USA, 1990–2021, and forecasts up to 20," Nov. 14, 2024. "Over the past several decades, the overweight and obesity epidemic in the USA has resulted in a significant health and economic burden. Understanding current trends and future trajectories at both national and state levels is crucial for assessing the success of existing interventions and informing future health policy changes."

More Metals  At Costco - Now You Can Also Buy Platinum
   

   Oddly enough, when I complete this post I will likely have spent as much time writing about Costco as shopping there. Although they are getting out of the book business (see:"More Bad News For Books"), you can find on their shelves, gold(see: "Gold At Costco!!) and silver (see: "Hi Ho Silver??) to take to your compound when the apocalypse arrives. You will have food that lasts years if you have also purchased "Readywise, Costco's Emergency Food Kit" (see: "Evidence of End Times at Costco?".)
   "The sales of silver and gold are going well and now Costco is offering bars of platinum. The Costco website lists the item as a one-ounce (roughly 28.3 grams) 999.5 pure platinum bar “with a proof-like finish.”  The bars bear the image of Lady Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck and good fortune – an image also on some of Costco’s gold bars. Customers will need a Costco membership to buy these bars. Unlike most other products available at Costco, however, you can’t buy this one in bulk. There is a limit of one transaction per membership, with a maximum of five units per member. The bars are also non-refundable."
For more see: "Platinum Rush? Costco Is Selling a New Precious Metal in the U.S." Uday, Rana, Global News, Oct. 4, 2024.

BOOZE At Costco For Ontarians
  While platinum is not yet available to us, we can now purchase, beer, wine, champagne and some 'soft' mixed cocktails at Costco, but not the hard stuff. For that, we will still have to go to the LCBO, but it is not yet clear what we do with all of the empty containers. See: "Ontario's 41 Costco Locations Can Sell Alcohol As Of Oct. 31, 2024," CBC News, Oct. 30, 2024. 

Happy Thanksgiving to Those In the U.S. 
   You have a lot to be thankful for - platinum at Costco, for example. Eat that turkey, but begin a diet in the new year.

Weighing In

    If you happen to find yourself in a large crowd, you will likely notice that the people in it are rather large as well. My observation is that obesity is now the new normal and so obvious that I won't bother supplying you with sources. In support, I will simply say, I should also be dieting.

Flying the Crowded Skies
   Perhaps the portly people are more noticeable at airports since we naturally have a fear of flying next to one of them. It is also the case that even those with a very basic knowledge of aeronautics must wonder if the plane will be able to lift off, after seeing a Hummer-sized couple try to stuff several hundred more pounds in your overhead bin. 
  Airlines are paying some attention to the added pounds since it is clear that the average guy today probably weighs as much as both Wright brothers. This startling headline is offered as proof: "Airline Starts Weighing Passengers at Gate." The airline is Finnair, and Korean Air and Air New Zealand have also conducted weight surveys. You will be less startled when you learn that your weight on the scale is not displayed for all in the terminal to see, and the data anonymized so that no one will know that it is you carrying all that extra fat.
   The issue of stoutness has come up recently in relation to Southwest Airlines' announcement that their open-seating policy is being changed. Those of you who think that, generally corpulence is something that can be controlled will be astonished to learn that Southwest sometimes provided an extra seat for free to those who did not fit very well into the one they purchased. Members of NAAFA are looking into the matter. You can as well by looking at these sources.

Sources:
"Airline Starts Weighing Passengers at the Gate," Julia Buckley, CNN, Feb. 9, 2024.
"Why Korean Air Will Be Weighing Some Passengers Before Their Flights," Lilit Marcus, CNN, Aug. 24, 2023.
"Air New Zealand to Weigh Passengers Before They Board the Airplane," Lilit Marcus, CNN, May 31, 2023.
"Plus-size Travelers Ask Southwest Airlines to not Abandon Them: Advocates in the Plus-Size Community Are Urging Southwest to Keep Its Free-Second-Seat Policy," Andrea Sachs, Washington Post, Aug. 2, 2024.
NAAFA - National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. 

The Bonus:
  I wasn't familiar with the phrase "plus-sized", but it dates back to 1927 when people were already looking for a euphemism for "huge" and it now applies to a large segment of the clothing market.
  Readers of MM will know that I have done a series of posts about magazines, called "Periodical Ramblings".  I now realize that I could do one about "Plus-Sized Periodicals", but won't . Here is one of the titles: The Pretty Pear Bride, "the world's only magazine dedicated exclusively to plus-sized brides."