Sunday, July 10, 2011

News You Can't Use

The BBC news website tells me that Scientists in Scotland Decode Potato Genome - and the question here is "Why?"  Were they bored?  Hungry?  Are they trying to clone waffle fries? 

None of the above - they were decoding it in order to boost potato harvests.  Because there just aren't enough french fries in this world already...

In related news, there's this humdinger in the Washinton Post: Adult Obesity Increases in 16 States.  It says, and I quote, "Adult obesity rates increased in 16 states in the past year and did not decline in any state, according to an annual report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation."  In other words, lay off the french fries, people!  Or at least stop eating them while you are driving around in your cars.

I'm thinking those Scottish scientists should be decoding the celery genome instead, no?

And, yes, I did use the word "humdinger" up there.  I'm turning into Colonel Potter from MASH.  And I don't care a horse's patootie about that.

Oh, ouch, now the BBC is telling me that Americans are fatter than Canadians.   Or, more precisely, a higher percentage of Americans are fat than are our northern brethren.  Well, la-di-da, you smug monarchy lovers, you - I'm sure if we were freezing our butts off from October until May every year, we'd be burning a lot more calories, too. 

Also?  Maybe the Canadians don't have waffle fries. 




Time to go feed my poor, fated-for-obesity American children...too bad ChikFilA isn't open on Sundays...





[Waffle fries image: Freemania]
[Col Potter photo: The Supply Tent]

6 comments:

  1. Actually, Canadians have poutine, because how could you possibly make fries less healthy? Why, by putting *gravy* on them!

    And potatos are nutritious, take very little space or labor to cultivate and can be cooked without utensils (important if you're too poor to own a pot to cook in). All this and more can be learned in "The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World by Larry Zuckerman" if you're curious...very interesting book.

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  2. Maybe if they could deep fry the celery...

    Here's another report from The Duh Files that ties in nicely with your obesity shocker:
    http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/articles/2011/07/04/tv_affects_a_childs_sleep_patterns/?camp=misc%3Aon%3Ashare%3Aarticle

    And lastly, I'm apparently channeling Radar O'Reilly as a Grape Nehigh crossed my mind just yesterday.

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  3. AnonymousJuly 11, 2011

    i LOVe fries! curly fries, regular fries, belgian fries, waffle fries....YUM!!! i'm not obese so i'm not planning on laying off of this delicious habit :-)

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  4. Suddenly, I am hungry for tater tots...
    And thanks to RobinH, I also really want to try Poutine.

    Moving makes me want to eat every comfort food within 60 miles. Got any?

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  5. I love potatoes in every form--luckily I even love them heaped with roasted veggies which is really the only way I can keep eating them very frequently on WW. Speaking of which . . . summer fun and counting points do not mesh well. Sigh.

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  6. I lost weight last year, so the rest of my state must have porked themselves turgid.

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