Posted 5:07 AM by Paul
Memories of Fat City

Last night saw the start of a series of documentaries about the Lone Star State entitled The State of Texas. One hour was devoted to a look at the eating habits of the denizens of Houston. Fascinating stuff. I found out that.

- the average Houstonian consumes 8,000 calories per day. Around 2 and a half times more than they need
- Only around 9% of all journeys are taken by foot or cycle, against a European average of 34%
- It was not unusual for families to drive their kids to the school bus stop 30 yards from their home
- Walking is difficult even for wierdos who do not own a car, because most roads do not have sidewalks.

It seems that more and more Americans are in the words of Scott Fitzgerald "not like us." The Atlantic is widening by the day.

The cast of characters in the documentary was generally appealing. They included a 30 year old black working single mom. She was 5 foot 6 and weighed in at 22 stone. She had decided to have a stomach stapling operation despite a 1% chance of fatality.

My favourite was Gus, a 19 stone happy go lucky guy who ate competitively. He polished off a mega burger - which included 1 and a half pounds of beef mince, a pound of bacon and a quarter pound of cheese - in just over 20 minutes. Impressive stuff. I wanted to join him, but I would have taken my time and used a full hour to consume the 5,000 calories in the sandwich. My claim to fame is to have eaten 7 full Italian meals in 10 hours as part of a sponsored eating competition in aid of a cancer charity. Gus would think I was anorexic.

I was in Houston on a stopover 8 years ago on my way back from Nicaragua. I only had 5 hours so a stayed in the airport and did not venture downtown. Which is a shame as I might have met Gus. In a tokenistic act of defiance I still wore my Sandinista t-shirt in the departure lounge which bore the slogan "Ni un Paso Atras" [not one step back).

Pathetic I know, but it felt like the right thing to do. About 2 hours into the flight back to London a burly bearded guy in a check shirt and truckers hat came up the aisle pointing at me aggressively. I braced myself for at the least verbal abuse.

" Great f*****g" t-shirt man.", he bellowed and then handed me a couple of miniatures of Jack Daniels.