A Little Bit O' Poison, A Whole Lot of Stupid

Overindulgence is in, baby! It's the new black!

I have heard many stories lately of people overindulging in various things... food, drink, drugs, the usual trouble spots. The weekend after Thanksgiving in this town (LA LA Land, CA, US of A) displayed an awesome array of come-downs within its city limits, and I even had an incredible experience of a good one from out of state. The holiday season itself is always an extravaganza of eating, or else all those gym memberships wouldn't shoot through the roof the first week of January. And a friend of mine just told me a story about some co-workers of hers who are out of town on business, and racked up a $750 booze bill in one evening at the bar. There were only 6 people drinking. That averages to $125 worth of alcohol per person! Now, unless there was a $200 bottle of wine involved (which I doubt because they were at a sports bar), that's a hell of a lot of drinking. I can pack it away myself on a good night, but I can't even imagine drinking $125 worth of liquor in a sports bar and not winding up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning.

Which brings me to a documentary I keep hearing about, and am very much looking forward to seeing even though I bet it'll freak me out. It's a little something called "Super-Size Me" and it's all about our country and fast food. The guy who did it, Morgan Spurlock, was inspired by the court case involving two obese girls who went after McDonald's, blaming their food for making them fat. I don't know, I still think that the decision to eat one hamburger instead of four may have helped them out more, but Spurlock decided to go an entire month eating only McDonald's, and not to turn down the "Super Size Me!" option if it were offered. He also interviewed diet autors, weight reduction guys, and "obesity" surgeons, among other folks.

But, of course, the kicker of this flick is what happens to a healthy guy who switches to a diet of fast food. Within a week he's having chest pains and headaches, and three weeks into it his doctors tell him his life is in his own hands... evidently his liver is so fouled that even someone drinking $125 of booze every couple nights couldn't compete.

It's all over, and I guess that Spurlock is okay now. His girlfriend is a vegan chef and I bet she helped clean him up after his traumatizing experience, and he's been making the rounds at Sundance and all that. I've never been a big fan of the Mickey D's - love the fries and apple pies - but the idea of eating one of their hamburgers isn't super appealing. And even though they are touting their new "healthy" lines of veggie burgers and salads, I still don't think "I'm lovin' it."