Sunday, July 8, 2007

A Carney's Repast

Ummm yummie. Dinner for a carny: two fried egg rolls and a large coke. This meal has not been endorsed by the American College of Cardiology, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or anyone with the slightest concern for life expectancy. As I said yesterday, most carnival workers look unhealthy – seriously overweight, bad teeth and often smokers. Is it part of their life on the fringe of our society? I bet they get few or no medical services. That’s a fact of life in this country, since we are the only industrialized nation without universal health care. I’m a strong proponent of what we, in our debates, call a single-payer system, supervised by the government. However, I’m not optimistic about that happening. Health care here is driven by profits and no one wants to lose their personal golden goose.

I do not know of any epidemiological studies about the rates of heart disease and diabetes among carnies. Perhaps the results would be too obvious to be worth the work.

TOMORROW: this is blog laziness week. Something nice and easy, like pretty girls?


3 comments:

  1. That meal doesn't look too good. It looks like it would be tough to eat.

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  2. I agree, we're not likely to see anything resembling a universal health care system in my lifetime.

    Pretty girls are always a nice subject. May I request that they have actual meat on their bones and not the current toothpick trend? Healthy girls are definetly much nicer to look at!

    PS-your son is the best! (The one in Chicago, as I don't know of any blog your other one has!)

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  3. Dear Strangetastes,
    Love the way that yellow Big Bird in higher corner space looks at/witnesses the carny being almost carniverous. Is the look disdain or desire?
    the mother

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