Feed Me!

In the mystery I am reading now (Murder at the Opera by Margaret Truman, yes, the President's daughter), I saw a line I totally agree with. "Everything these days on cable news shows seemed to be 'breaking news'."

As I have mentioned before, my gym has two TV's in the exercise area, and they always are tuned one of the cable news channels. (Which is just as well because, if they had on something like Scooby-Doo, I'd do more watching than working out.) They vary the channels, but none of them seems particularly informative. One network seems to talk about celebrities, not news. (Maybe I just happen to be in the gym during a non-news program.) Another always has a panel discussing something. (My workout station isn't close enough for me to read the closed captioning.) A third network (and do we really need this many channels for news?) has a program during which the "reporter" offers his opinion (called "My View" or "My Take" or "I Did it My Way" or something). When are they actually going to get around to telling us what happened in the world today?

Lest you think I reserve my comments to news networks, I also have a beef with The Weather Channel. Have you tuned in lately? They have programs about natural disasters. They have programs about storm damage. They have male/female duos chatting and interacting, much like the daily morning programs on the three traditional networks. They used to offer a gardening segment. They claim to have "Local on the 8's" (with the "current [weather] conditions in your area"), but I'm more likely to see one of those programs when I tune in. Whatever happened to the weather?

Before I get too far off track, I'll get to the gist of this post and explain the title. I have noticed, on one of the "news" channels, a commercial for a weight-loss "program" (i.e. eat the tiny portions we give you and nothing else) marketed toward men. For "just" or "only" $10.00 per day, they'll send you breakfast, lunch, dinner, and one dessert.

Now this is more affordable than eating every meal at a restaurant (especially in certain parts of the country), but let's do the math. Ten dollars each day adds up to $280 to $310 per month. I don't spend that much on groceries each month, and I have a lot more food in my kitchen. Why should I pay someone to mail me food, just to receive less than I could make myself? This is akin to one of those "gourmet" restaurants which serves a "medallion" of meat, a couple of undercooked green beans, and a squirt of "secret sauce" artfully arranged on a plate the size of Wyoming.

To quote Clara Peller, "Where's the beef?"