In relation to the Miss Alaska pageant and all that, The New Yorker has a story (available to subscribers only*) about another admirer of feminine beauty in politics--Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who has survived some seventeen criminal trials without ultimately being convicted. According to the article's summary, when, in January, the prosecutor’s office in Naples indicted Berlusconi and issued a report depicting Italy’s state TV network, RAI, as an enormous casting couch that Berlusconi used to grant favors to aspiring actresses and to try to bring down the government, it had no impact. The difference with the US is that Silvio did win the last spring’s election. Obviously, Italians have a different sexual instinct than Americans.

Berlusconi has installed in the parliament, and even in his government, a number of former starlets who had gained fame in his TV empire. The article mentions Mara Carfagna, a former Miss Italy contestant who worked as a showgirl on Berlusconi’s TV stations before entering parliament. Also mentions Michela Vittoria Brambilla, another former Miss Italy contestant who is the Undersecretary for Tourism, and Mariastella Gelmini, the minister of education. Berlusconi talks openly about sex in public and his personal physician believes that Berlusconi’s biological age is actually fifteen years younger than his chronological age. Unfortunately, I am unable to copy and paste the New Yorker accompanying cartoon and I have no time for uploading games.

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Alexander Stille, Letter from Rome, “Girls! Girls! Girls!,” The New Yorker, November 3, 2008, p. 70

Originally written by Elena Rodriguez on November 18, 2008 2:19 PM hi bertha How can you say that it is wrong to (think you can) do with your body what you choose to (ie, lead the way of life you choose to, dress the way you like..)... that is all we have for sure,... From the skin inwards, it is all mine. This does not necessarily equal being morbidly fat or having kilos of silicon implants... but even so, IF it is your choice, it is all yours, so you decide. Enjoy your Pilates...and chocolates too! Elena

Elena,

I neither said nor implied that it is wrong to do with your body what you choose. What I said is obese or grossly overweight women do not do with their body what they want to do; they just survive in it.

Here in the US we have a TV show, -"The Biggest Loser", where you can see grossly overweight individuals, who weigh from 250 to 390 pounds, go the extra mile to lose weight. They workout every day for hours on end, follow a very strict low-calorie diet, go through the most unbelievable physical and psychological challenges, all because they are sick and tired with leading an unhealthy life.

Just try asking three or four grossly overweight individuals if that's the body they want to live in and if they think that is the kind of unhealthy life they want to lead.

Concerning Pilates, an aunt of my husband's could no longer style her own hair because her arms got tired after only ten minutes holding her hair dryer above hear head. She started working on this Pilates machine (Pilates Pro Gym) and now she not only can style her own hair but she also feels like a new woman.

Concerning chocolates, I am lactose intolerant and I should only have lactose-free chocolates, which are not too easy to come by. [Sniff]. If you can find some and send them over, I will most certainly pig out.

Bertha

Originally written by Bertha S. Deffenbaugh on November 19, 2008 3:57 PM I neither said nor implied that it is wrong to do with your body what you choose. What I said is obese or grossly overweight women do not do with their body what they want to do; they just survive in it. ... Just try asking three or four grossly overweight individuals if that's the body they want to live in and if they think that is the kind of unhealthy life they want to lead.

And just try asking three or four grossly underweight individuals the same thing! I have a constant struggle to keep my wife's weight up. If we don't keep at it, her weight starts to fall and she is in tears at the way she thinks she looks. I weigh about twice as much as she does for approximately the same height and I have the same fight but in the other direction.

It is not a matter of what we eat. We both eat the same kind of food: mostly whole wheat flour bread, vegetables and fruit and only nominal amounts of meat, no packaged foods, just natural fresh stuff, exactly what the medicine men recommend. But when it comes to the meals, we have to eat separately because she wants to pile half her meal onto my plate and I fight continuously to put as much as I can of mine onto hers. Half does not sound much but it means that I am eating three times as much as she eats! You can put on weight and lose weight eating 100% healthy food! There is something else at play here and it could be genetics - try fighting them!

I go to bed feeling sure that I have eaten far too much again and she goes to bed crying that she still feels hungry and is wasting away to nothing. We were not always like this. We were once about the same weight. Something has happened and nobody knows for sure what that something is.

Overweight people have it good because there is always something that they can do about it if they want to, even if only in theory - exercise more and eat less - but there is nothing much that underweight people can do, eating more and exercising less just does not produce the desired result.

During the election I heard Arnold Schwarzenegger criticize Barack Obama because of his weedy look. My bet is that Obama will lose weight fast in the White House until it eventually becomes a health problem.

Derek

What a relief to finally hear a story I can relate to in such a detail, Derek! With the exception of "I fight continuously to put as much as I can of my [food] onto her [plate]"... Oh, never! 

(And again, today, more of that stupid omnipresent advice that never works, yes, against genetics:

Jacek (desperately and hopelessly munching rice cakes...)

Originally written by John Bunch on November 19, 2008 6:51 PM It suddenly occurred to me that my extra 15 pounds, rather than being a liability, from an evolutionary and genetic point of view, is probably an advantage.

Caveat:

Excess body mass index (BMI) is a well-known predictor of morbidity and mortality, Dr Jensen says, but many now suggest that waist circumference is a more beneficial measure. http://www.imwr.com/issues/articles/2007-05_14.asp

However, measurement of WC as a preferable determinant of cardiovascular and metabolic risks is increasingly gaining popularity in recent years. That WC is indeed a better index than BMI as a measure of obesity among the Chinese has been recently reported in both Chinese men, women... http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-128075132.html