An Immodest Proposal
When I was ten, my parents, my much younger sister and I moved from the UK to Boston. Three weeks after we arrived, JFK was shot. Ten months after that, we moved to Pittsburgh.
Because Dad's contract at one of the Pittsburgh universities was year-to-year, and because he and my Mother didn't know how long they would be in the States, the following year I was shipped back to England, to boarding school in Malvern Wells.
I don't really know how to explain what that's like except to say that it sounds a lot like my husband's experience of Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island. Madly energetic. Seven mile runs up and down the Malvern hills on Saturday afternoon. Five mile walks on Sunday afternoons. A "games" interval, consisting of field hockey, lacrosse, tennis or swimming, as the seasons allowed. Strict discipline. Classes and study periods all day and into the early evening (and I was 12 and 13 years old at the time). Chapel every day and twice on Sundays. I think it was Winston Churchill who said something to the effect that during his time in boarding school he had accumulated such a 'store in the bank of observances that [he had] been drawing on it ever since.' I know how he felt.
Oddly enough, one of the things I remember best about boarding school is the food. We ate well (or so I thought at the time). We ate like hobbits. We ate at breakfast, at break, at lunch, at afternoon snack, at tea, and at supper.
Great thick wads of bread, fried in bacon grease with our breakfast. Doorstops of bread with butter and jam with our tea. Huge plates of stew with gobs of fat, and even some meat and potatoes in it, for lunch. Toffee, chocolate and the odd (very odd) piece of fruit, sent by Granny, for a snack. Spotted Dick, with about a quart of custard, for pudding (no, this is NOT a CoC violation, I promise).
But my favorite was Break (the equivalent of recess) which occurred at about 11AM, Monday through Friday. It consisted of about 15 minutes on your own or spent with friends (a novelty in itself), half a pint of full-cream milk with the cream floating on top (an English half-pint is 10 ounces, not 8), together with a treat which consisted of, as follows: Monday-doughnut with cream center, Tuesday-slice of Victoria sponge cake, Wednesday-donut with jam center, Thursday-plain donut, Friday (my favorite)-Lardy cake (yes, Lard-y cake). I loved all of it.
There were no fat children at my boarding school.
Once Dad's employment situation was settled, I came back to Pittsburgh, and went through the last year of Junior High and all four years at the local High School. I don't think my mother ever packed me a lunch. I ate what was on offer at the school cafeteria. We had to buy meal tickets. I think they were a quarter each.
I can't remember a single meal, or even a particular food item that I ate during the last five years of my secondary schooling. It was that bland and unmemorable.
But there weren't many obese kids at my high school, either.
Fast forward to 2012 and Mrs. Obama's determination that "we can't leave it to the parents" to decide what their children eat. (To a certain extent, I do blame Jamie Oliver for some of this. He started a similar thing in the UK some years ago, which has now been recognized as largely unsuccesful, and now they're on to something else).
A poor little girl in North Carolina has a mother who actually takes the time to pack her a decent, if unmemorable lunch, and it's taken away from her because it doesn't meet the USDA standards for school meals. I understand that what she took with her to school was a turkey and cheese sandwich, a bag of chips, a banana and some apple juice. And I also understand that what she ended up eating was three chicken nuggets (from organically-raised, free-range, humanely-slaughtered, happy hens, I'm sure), and that most of the rest of what she was given (and for which her mother was billed) was thrown away.
Meanwhile, the school, and the county, probably has scores of children who are actually deprived and hungry, and who would think themselves in heaven if they could have a turkey and cheese sandwich, a bag of potato chips, some apple juice and a banana for lunch. And probably scores of children who wished they had mothers who loved them enough to pack such a lunch.
Would it be indelicate of me to suggest that, instead of worrying quite so much about portion control and turning the food pyramid upside down or turning it into a tetrahedron, or whatever it is now, Mrs. Obama and the pointy-headed bureaucrats in her army get up off their sometimes very considerable cans and try running seven miles up and down a few hills a couple of times a week? And that they encourage the children in school to do likewise? That they bring back recess, and dodge-ball, and softball and gymnastics and swimming and running and jumping about, and all those things that are forbidden today because someone might get hurt, or fall down, or lose the game, or suffer a bit of low self-esteem if they don't do quite so well as everyone else?
It seems to me that this would do far more to solve the obesity problem than micromanaging the perfectly adequate lunch menu of four year old girls in North Carolina.
Or is exercise and activity off the table because everyone's worried that they'll be sued if someone bumps into the wall? Never fear, an Executive Order or Presidential Diktat, and there would be no more lawsuits.
Problem solved.
For an amusing take on this matter, see here.
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May '11
Re: An Immodest Proposal
Exercising can have health benefits, but there's precious little evidence that it helps you lose weight.
Just last month, the American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine published joint guidelines for physical activity and health. They suggested that 30 minutes of moderate physical activity five days a week is necessary to 'promote and maintain health'. What they didn't say, though, was that more physical activity will lead us to lose weight. The best they could say about the relationship between fat and exercise was this: 'It is reasonable to assume that persons with relatively high daily energy expenditures would be less likely to gain weight over time compared with those who have low energy expenditures. So far, data to support this hypothesis is not particularly compelling.' In other words, despite half a century of efforts to prove otherwise, scientists still can't say exercise will help keep the pounds off.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/oct/28/healthandwellbeing.features1
Edited on February 15, 2012 at 7:23pmDec '10
Re: An Immodest Proposal
She
REAL spotted dick, however requires SUET pastry (the fat you feed your wild birds) crust, rolled out into a square, dotted with currants, and rolled up into a log shape. It is then required to be tied up in a cloth, and tossed into a vat of boiling water, where it languishes, bubbling away, for I should think, about three days. When it's taken out, and the cloth removed, you have a lump of dense, slightly sticky, puttly colored dough with soggy currants scattered through it.
Slice thickly and serve with lumpy custard.
YUM!! · 1 hour ago
Edited 1 hour ago
The real challenge would be getting the rest of the family to eat it. My wife doesn't like pudding. Can you believe that!? I didn't find this out until after we had wed, but - sheesh! And she passed that particular displeasure on to our kids. So eating pudding is a solitary activity for me.
Jul '11
Re: An Immodest Proposal
Kids are like Labradors. Run them, run them often, or else.
Dec '10
Re: An Immodest Proposal
Ningrim: Exercising can have health benefits, but there's precious little evidence that it helps you lose weight.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/oct/28/healthandwellbeing.features1 · 1 hour ago
Edited 59 minutes ago
The Guardian? The GUARDIAN? I've never read the Guardian. We only read the Telegraph . . .
Feb '11
Re: An Immodest Proposal
"Young people and dogs require plenty of exercise." see here at about the 2:15 mark (and watch the whole movie if you can -- it is wonderful and has great voice talent!)
Nov '11
Re: An Immodest Proposal
DrewInWisconsin: Instapundit Glenn cheekily mentioned a connection between the rise in diabetes and the government-created "food pyramid" a few days ago.
I don't need a lot of convincing, I guess.
But there are a lot of factors at work, I'm sure, including the lack of actual outside play for kids. · 7 hours ago
See also science journalist Gary Taubes' "What if it's all been a big fat lie." He argues that obesity really began its upward trajectory when the government bought into low-fat diets, the food processors, wanting to sell "healthy" food, followed along. Low-fat food is not very satisfying and often tastes bad, so processors add sugar, which is addictive, and of course all those hungry people end up eating (and drinking) lots of sugar, and that's what adds weight. Yet another reason to get the government out of the way.
Jul '11
Re: An Immodest Proposal
Mama Toad
"Young people and dogs require plenty of exercise." see here at about the 2:15 mark (and watch the whole movie if you can -- it is wonderful and has great voice talent!) · 4 hours ago
Toad of Toad Hall. Echoes of my childhood return from across the giant canyon of adulthood.
Dec '10
Re: An Immodest Proposal
Dearest She,
This is just a wonderful post. Nothing could demonstrate more how the commen sense of an honest strong individual, like yourself, is superior to all the brainpower the fools in the Federal Government can muster. The First Lady being the biggest fool of all.
She, I know it might embarriss you but I will reveal that we know each other. Your father and my father were the best of friends in Pittsburgh at Duquesne University so long ago. I remember him so well. What a grand man he was. If ever there was someone who made me understand why 'The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire' it was your father. Brave and loyal to a fault, your father was fearless and wonderful.
She have you ever thought of writing about him. When he talked about marching directly into an African tribal village and meeting the chief, I was all ears. (No comments about how big they are, please.)
Regards and Fond Memories,
Jim
Edited on February 16, 2012 at 4:04amJan '11
Re: An Immodest Proposal
If you're thinking these are public schools, you'd be wrong. They're public orphanages. The three R's are irrelevant. Positive self image and three squares, or tetrahedrons, as you suggest are the new education.
Dec '10
Re: An Immodest Proposal
Semper Bufo, DocJay and Mama Toad.
Jim, not embarrassed at all. I will never forget your own father's good humor and kindness and your mother's complete unflappability as you all but adopted us in the mid 1960's. Thank you so much for your kind words about Dad, who passed away in 2007. He was indeed an extraordinary person. I promise you I will write about him soon.
Also, thank you, editors, for kicking me "Upstairs." I have thoroughly enjoyed the discussion and the recollections that the conversation has provoked.
Thank you, Ricochet!
Feb '12
Re: An Immodest Proposal
Sandy
DrewInWisconsin: Instapundit Glenn cheekily mentioned a connection between the rise in diabetes and the government-created "food pyramid" a few days ago.
I don't need a lot of convincing, I guess.
But there are a lot of factors at work, I'm sure, including the lack of actual outside play for kids. · 7 hours ago
See also science journalist Gary Taubes' "What if it's all been a big fat lie." He argues that obesity really began its upward trajectory when the government bought into low-fat diets, the food processors, wanting to sell "healthy" food, followed along. Low-fat food is not very satisfying and often tastes bad, so processors add sugar, which is addictive, and of course all those hungry people end up eating (and drinking) lots of sugar, and that's what adds weight. Yet another reason to get the government out of the way. · 6 hours ago
Yep. Worst two words in the English language: "no fat." I've never understood why natural fat - such as in yogurt and in eggs - was terrible but added sweeter was fine. I'm not surprised there could be grave consequences.