The Feedlot is Getting Picky

James,

Didn't you have an article or three on the prevalence of picky eating, especially among men in recent years? During my own ghetto grocer days I saw the beginning of this trend but in typical modern fashion it has spiraled into comical self-parody, with everyone I know driving trucks and SUV's many extra miles a day in search of the perfect novelty food taste+texture combination.

I truly believe it's become the main economic cog greasing this entire machine along, possibly oiling up Americans (literally?) even more than the spectator sports + media news cycle combined.

Another quick bit of trivia: has an obese populace ever rebelled or changed the status quo once in history?

Attached is the infamous image of Breezewood, PA, a highway corridor that forces all drivers to navigate a gauntlet of stereotypical petroleum based poor life decisions before proceeding on their way. I feel this image encapsulates the 21st century western experience better than any other.

[Photo of Breezewood, PA, where I-70 West from Baltimore links up with the PA Turnpike.]

Best of luck cutting weight for the upcoming Agonistics event, if you ever feel tempted to reach for the cupcake remember that leaning out is among the most rebellious acts a man can make this era!

I just signed on to get the go ahead from my webmaster to finish posting for early September. I noted this email in my inbox and was moved to make a few comments. This machine cannot schedule posts—so it's an extra.

In 2001, I first noticed that people 30 and younger were constantly physically hungry for food and tended to be picky, with men tending to get grumpy like women when hungry. This made no sense. I was still under 150 and had not gotten fat yet. Between 2006 and 2010 I got semi-fat, not by eating much, but through stress, as a manager, who ate but rarely and slept little. Between 2010 and 2019 I got really fat eating poorly, living off of $15 a week and eating ramen noodles and such.

I got fat living on the high end and the low end, spending 100 a night for my son and I or a girl and I to have a late night dinner after my 16-hour shift, and gaining weight even quicker as a poor fuck eating a bowl of noodles alone in my room. If you are part of the system it projects its thirst and hunger through you.

Recent observations on my trip from California to Chicago and this stay in Missouri:

-Train passengers had a constant need to feed, eating constantly.

-Two days ago I went with Paul as he shoed some horses, something that made the Arabian mares nervous. The horse trainer in the Boston Mountains, placed grain in a bucket and lifted it so that the muzzle of the mares was in contact with the yummy grain. This calmed the 850 pound beasts, eating the whole while as they behaved.

-On the way to shoe more horses, we stopped for lunch at a Mexican food cart. I asked for sausage.

"Any tortilla?"

"No."

"Any rice or beans?"

"No."

This has resulted in much rudenesss and even refusal to fill orders in standard joints as I abide by Rick and avoid the sacred carbohydrates of civilization. The woman smiled and brought me a plate of fried sausage with onions and peppers and Paul correctly observed, "You're lucky this wasn't a white establishment or you would have been punished for eating outside the menu."

"Toast?"

"No."

"Hashbrowns?"

"No."

"Pancakes?"

"No."

I have been brought plates by waitresses who sneer in disgust at my lack of class, though most don't care and seem to be put off simply by a refusal to check a box and not make things difficult. I should just order standard fare and pick around the mounds of stored energy.

I am heded back east where people I know are obsessed with flavor, and texture and will wax philosophic about food, at the foot of Satan's very throne. ...

No, fat people have never revolted against their masters, have never overturned a social order, have never conquered a nation, never discovered a new world—they are the perfect subjects of social control.