Japanese Face Fat Fines

No, I don't mean big fines. I mean, literally, fines for being fat. How cool is that (he said, after having lost 20 lbs this year!)? Yep, CNN reports that a new Japanese law requires companies to measure the waists of all their employees over 40 years of age. Men must come in under 33.5 inches, and women under 35.5. (What, no outcry over gender and age discrimination, much less the obvious obesity bias? Where the heck is the Japanese ACLU?) If the companies don't show improvement, they could face hefty (smirk) fines or increases in their insurance premiums. So not only will those on the plump side have a hard time finding a date, but they will be considered a liability at work as well. What to do when faced with such social stigma? Ben and Jerry-son?

I expect that this corporate blubber tax will have some interesting effects. Companies will be incented to educate their employees, encourage (pressure) them to lose weight, eliminate junk food vending machines, provide exercise programs and finally (a real shocker in Japan) fire the chunksters.

The new deal is being met with some enthusiasm. Posters in Japan feature rotund cartoon figures with buttons popping off their pants urging people to overcome "metabo." Weight-loss groups in Japan exercise together, singing inspirational songs with lyrics such as "Goodbye, metabolic. Let's get our checkups together. Go! Go! Go!" (Not only is this questionable song-writing, but blaming metabolism vs. that samurai-sized bag of Cheetos tucked under your kimono seems to me like a country not quite ready to face reality.)

But really, I think the Japanese law is a great idea. In fact, we should expand this to the U.S. right away. Hmmmm ... fat chance.

Wasatch Back

In my effort to get back into shape and good health, I decided to start running again. Always needing some motivation, I put together a team for the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay Race. Mostly family and friends, our 12-person team included Angelica (five months pregnant), Merritt, Sam, Eric and Dave Jarvi, Russ Nelson, Cynthia Card and other friends of friends who became much better friends over the course of the race.

The Wasatch Back is a grueling, 180-mile race from Logan to Park City, with over 26,000 feet of up and down elevation (more up than down). Each teammate runs three legs, from 3-7 miles, over the course of 28 hours and 14 minutes. And all of this with constant movement, perpetual coordination, crazy eating habits and virtually no sleep while being squished into two vans with all your smelly teammates.

It was at the same time a very demanding physical challenge, a delightful social event and an inspiring experience of team camaraderie. Our team performed respectably, finishing 75th out of 210 teams in the co-ed open division--which isn't bad given that our goal was to have fun and get in shape.

I found it personally exhausting. During the race I struggled keeping my wind on the uphills. (I'm clearly not in peak shape--yet!) By the end of my last leg, I was completely wiped out. Getting home, I showered, walked directly to bed, fell asleep within two minutes and didn't move until 10 hours later. I don't recall that kind of fatigue ever.

At my age, I don't know why I put myself through that. It seems almost ridiculous. But I'm already thinking about how much better I'll do next year.

Am I in the Matrix Now?

I had this pop-up come to my screen a few minutes ago, which struck me as curious, in a metaphysical sort of way. I clicked "OK" because I couldn't think of any cogent objections, like something out of a Kafka novel.

Shelfari

I ran into an interesting site the other day. I guess it's growing pretty fast, and it sometimes seems like I'm the last to know about these things, but it's called Shelfari (www.shelfari.com) and is an online bookshelf, or at least a record of the books you read. You list the books you have read, rate them and review them if you'd like, then share your bookshelf with your friends and family.

I immediately loved the idea, for several reasons. The interface is great, easy to use and visually appealing (it's better in full screen). I've always loved books, and this is a good way to get recommendations from trusted sources. It's also fun to see what others are reading--sort of a glimpse into their souls! Plus, it's kind of neat to keep track of what you read, which I've never done. Finally, as you'll see on this blog, there's a cool widget that allows me to share it here.

I built my "library" in about 10 minutes, mainly by turning around and looking at my bookshelves. I mostly just listed stuff I'd read in the past year or so, although I sprinkled in a few others that I have particular fondness for. (Although it might be a good project some time to try to think of all the books I have ever read--as an adult, at least. Hmmmm... )

Anyway, it works best as a network, so if you join, please add me to yours. Read on!

Young at Heart

Ever since we saw the trailer a few months ago, Rebecca and I have wanted to see the documentary Young at Heart. So last night we headed to our local arthouse theater The Broadway and were treated to one of the more entertaining documentaries I have ever seen. Young at Heart is a geriatric rock 'n roll singing group out of Northampton, Massachusetts which you've got to see (and hear) to believe. Really. Until you've seen a 92-year-old woman steady herself with her cane as she walks to the microphone and belts out "I Wanna Be Sedated" from The Ramones, well, you haven't seen the full potential of Punk.

Young at Heart is thoroughly enjoyable, filled with humor, affection, irony, fascination and toe-tapping music. But more than anything, it is hard not be profoundly affected by the twist in your perspective, realizing that great-grandma might get into ColdPlay better than you. They change the nature of the songs, making them much more lyric-driven, and often with more feeling and emotion. Very, very cool and inspiring. Especially one of my favorite songs of all time: Forever Young. They gave it a whole new meaning.

But there was more. We knew the group would be performing the next night at a local auditorium, but were surprised and delighted that several of the cast showed up after our movie for a Q&A, including founder and director Bob Cilman (a kid at 53!). We chatted with them afterwards. But one exchange really struck me. I asked them how being in the group had impacted their lives. Profoundly, for all of them, they said. But an 80-year-old retired doctor told how important it was that he had someplace to be, something to do, songs to learn, cadences to master, an important sense of purpose and an appreciation for what he was doing. Definitely something to think about as we move into those ... Golden Years, whop-whop-whop Gold ... Don't let me hear you say life's takin' you nowhere ... Angel ...

Movies

Tom McCarthy's The Visitor is showing at the local arthouse theater here in SLC. I saw this at Sundance last year and really liked it. (See review.) McCarthy also did Station Agent, the fantastic film with Peter Dinklage which premiered at Sundance in 2003. The Visitor is his second directing effort, and a lovely, lilting story that I thought was beautiful. I highly recommend it.

I've been on a vintage movie DVD kick lately, when I've found the time. Last night it was The Court Jester, a 1956 light whimsical comedy starring Danny Kaye, but also featuring a young Angela Lansbury (Murder, She Wrote) and Basil Rathbone (from the old Sherlock Holmes shows). If you can rise above the dated feel, it's really quite a delightful movie, with a fast-paced storyline, dialogue that is arousingly clever and fun, a truly impressive performance by Kaye and wonderfully vibrant period-piece costumes (it was the early days of Technicolor). Plus, it is just so completely wholesome and charming.

A few weeks ago I tried a Japanese classic, Akira Kurosawa's legendary Yojimbo, the 1961 samurai flick that glorified the indomitable and enigmatic lone warrior striding into town, and was the inspiration behind Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name and all the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns. I'm not enough of a film connoisseur to fully appreciate Kurosawa's craftsmanship, but the movie had the feel of greatness. Most of today's movie-goers would probably not enjoy Yojimbo, but it felt like an integral part of my education in film history, that I was witnessing something important--like listening to Miles Davis in The Birth of Cool.

Last week it as another 50's DVD, Marty, starring the immensely talented Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair. The movie received a number of academy award nominations, and Borgnine beat out James Dean for Best Actor. It was something of a revival role for Blair, the wife of Gene Kelly had been an emerging star until her left-leaning activism got her blacklisted in the 40's. But history aside-- Marty is a charming movie and a quaint romance, and the more I thought about it the more I appreciated it as a story well-told, yet grounded in reality.

May Quotes

"It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers."
--James Thurber

"Some people are always looking for a mistake to point out, like a dog sniffing the ground for a place to pee."
--Bill Aho

"There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who want to get things done and those who don't want to make mistakes."
--John C. Maxwell

"It is vain to do with more what can be done with less."
--William of Occam

"Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is due to the triumph of enthusiasm."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It is the earliest age I have left."
--Roman scholar Cato, when asked why he was starting to study Greek at age 80

“A wrong decision isn't forever; it can always be reversed. The losses from a delayed decision are forever; they can never be retrieved.”
--John Kenneth Galbraith


"Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you."
--Dr. Seuss

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool."
--Richard P. Feynman, Nobel Prize-winning physicist

“Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”
--Helen Keller

“Odd things animals. All dogs look up at you. All cats look down at you. Only a pig looks at you as an equal.”
--Winston Churchill

"They can because they think they can."
--Virgil

“Every really new idea looks crazy at first.”
--Alfred North Whitehead

“It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem.”
--G. K. Chesterton

"Most men don't recognize opportunity because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work."
--Thomas Edison

“The only real valuable thing is intuition. The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery.”
--Albert Einstein