1171 The Fat Man Sings

1171 The Fat Man Sings

It’s hard to be sneaky and surreptitious when you weigh north of 300 pounds and everyone knows who you are.  But somehow, Chris Christie managed.

He went under the knife, gastric band surgery, they call it.  Took him almost three months to tell the New York Post about it.  This operation is like putting a hollow rubber band around part of your stomach to make you feel full with little food.  It’s less invasive than some of the bariatric procedures out there.  The rubber band is actually silicone and the reason it’s hollow is so they can stick a needle in the patient and tighten the band by pumping in saline solution when necessary.

Obesity is a national problem, and Christie who says he doesn’t want to be a role model for the morbidly obese, underwent the operation because when he turned 50 last year, his wife and four kids put the squeeze on him.  All else had failed.

Cynics say it’s because he wants to run for president in 2016.  Probably they’re right.

Christie is a Republican you can like.  A personality with girth to match his midsection.  And by today’s standards, he’s about as sane as the party gets, which ain’t much, but ain’t nothin’ either:

Embracing Obama... FEMA money for Sandy victims... Legislation that may reduce human trafficking...

Has he lost weight in the past three months?  Not so’s you’d notice.  But we’re not his scale, so maybe yes.  He’s not talking about that, but the Post says he’s dropped 40 pounds.

That belly band thing is considered the safest of the various kinds of stomach shrinking surgery.  And it’s done with about a half dozen little incisions... better than opening you all the way up.  The Bariatric chorus also says it’s the safest kind of surgery and the least effective.

Will it matter if he eventually loses 100 lbs?  Probably.  Can he keep the weight off?  It’s possible.  Will he live longer because of it?  Maybe.

The question for his family is will he be healthier?  The question for the rest of us is will he be president?

Shrapnel:

--You can’t declare self-sent, self-received  email as spam from your own inbox.  Email services have different ways of telling you that. The best so far is “We don’t like you any more than you do, but we can’t let you injure yourself that way.”

--Who named Stradivari's violins, violas and cellos?  He made about 250 instruments not counting guitars and harps and almost all of them are identified by name.  Is it possible that’s because he couldn’t count?

--A religious rebellion you probably haven’t heard of, this among psychiatrists who think their bible, called the DSM is letting them down.  A new edition is about ready for publication and apostates in shrinkland are saying it’s too little, too late and wrong.  And they may be right in seeking to shift the direction of research from talk-talk-talk to research techniques successfully developed to diagnose and treat the screwups of other body organs.

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them.  ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2013