Brad Pitt is Overweight and George Clooney is Obese

The past few months I’ve been trying to shed a few pounds, and I was browsing various dietary websites for information when I ran across the government’s BMI calculator. BMI stands for Body Mass Index, and the U.S. government uses BMI calculations to determine if a person is underweight, ok, overweight, obese, or clinically obese.

I am 6ft. tall and according to the BMI calculator my “normal” weight range begins at 138 lbs. Huh? I was 5 ft. 6 in. tall, eleven years old, and skinny as a pole when I last weighed 138. I would look like a holocaust refugee at 138 lbs. I knew the BMI calculations were ridiculous, but I didn’t realize how ridiculous.

BMI calculations do not take individual traits like bone structure or muscle mass into account. The World Health Organization has suggested using waist, height, and shoulder measurements, but the U.S. government says “No.” I suppose it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but there are lunatics in our country that want to start putting a “fat” tax on foods like ice cream and food purchased at fast food restaurants based on the fact that 60 percent of Americans are overweight or obese according to the BMI charts. Are that many people overweight?

When the BMI charts were revised in 1998, 39 million Americans instantly jumped from the “normal” category into the “overweight” or “obese” category. It makes me wonder if all of the talk about how Americans are so much fatter these days is totally true. I realize Americans are fat compared to people in other countries, but I doubt there are as many fat Americans as our government is saying.

Did you know these celebrities are fat?

Overweight according to BMI

Brad Pitt
Keanu Reeves
Matt Damon
Tom Cruise
Tom Brady
Michael Jordan
Yao Ming

Obese according to BMI

George Clooney
Matt LeBlanc
Mike Tyson

Another F'ing Birthday

I'm 36, so I'm not so thrilled about having birthdays anymore, but they seem to keep coming.

Other people born on April 15th:

1452 Leonardo da Vinci Italy, painter/sculptor/scientist/visionary
1933 Elizabeth Montgomery Los Angeles CA, actress (Samantha/Serena-Bewitched)
1933 Roy Clark Meherrin VA, country singer (Hee Haw)
1944 Dave Edmunds Cardiff Wales, singer/guitarist (Rockpile-Baby I Love You)
1947 Michael DeBello singer (Maniac)
1959 Emma Thompson Paddington London England, actress (Henry V, Howards End, Oscar-1992)
1965 Anthony Miller NFL wide receiver (Denver Broncos, Dallas Cowboys)
1966 Samantha Fox East End London England, singer (Touch Me, I Wanna Have Some Fun)

Notable events that occurred on April 15th:

1865 President Abraham Lincoln dies, at 7:22 am, morning after being shot by John Wilkes Booth
1990 Greta Garbo actress (Anna Karenina, Camille), dies at 84
1912 Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM in North Atlantic as the band plays on
1923 1st sound on film public performance shown at Rialto Theater
1954 KARK TV channel 4 in Little Rock AR (NBC) begins broadcasting
1955 Ray Kroc starts the McDonald's chain of fast food restaurants
1983 Tokyo Disneyland opens
1986 US air raids Libya, responding to La Belle disco, Berlin bombing
1991 Magic Johnson sets NBA record for career assists with 9,898

RIP: Don Ho

August 13, 1930 - April 14, 2007

It was reported on the local radio station that Don's funeral will be the first ever to have six Hos as pallbearers.

Food Network Quote of the Year (So Far)

In a recent episode of Iron Chef America in which the secret ingredient was goat, one of the chefs was seen whacking the back of a pomegranate to remove the seeds, and then rubbing the goat loin with a mixed seasoning in preparation for cooking.

From host Alton Brown: "We've just seen the chef rubbing his loins and spanking his pomegranates on national television. At least someone is happy tonight."

RIP : Mark St. John

FEBRUARY 7, 1956 - APRIL 5, 2007

Mark was KISS' third guitar player and played on the 1984 Animalize album, the biggest selling non-makeup album the band ever made. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage that was likely caused from an addiction to meth.

Usenet's Moron Quote of the Week

"Being contrived has absolutely nothing to do with being fake."

- Broncofan (should be Donkeyfan) of Google Group rec.music.artists.kiss

HAPPY EASTER

Keith Richards Will Snort Anything -- Even His Father

In comments published yesterday, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones admitted to once snorting the ashes of his cremated father mixed with cocaine.

"The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father," Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME.

I don't find this the least bit surprising. I don't understand how the Rolling Stones have been around for so long and still sell seats for $300 each anytime they tour. They've been washed up for years, and they're one of the most overrated bands of all time in my opinion.

UPDATE: So, the Rolling Stones' manager or publicist is trying to say Keith was joking and basically said it should be considered an April Fool's joke. Uh huh. This is nothing more than an attempt to fix a publicity nightmare.

In an article published on its website, the magazine said the remark was "no quip, but came about after much thinking" by the rock star. "He didn't offer the information, I had to ask him a couple of questions to get the information out of him," interviewer Mark Beaumont was quoted as saying. "He didn't come straight out with that. He did seem to be quite honest about it. There were too many details for him to be making it up."

Now that I think of it, Ol' Keef probably didn't snort his dad's ashes. He probably shot up with them.

On This Date

On April 3, 1882, 125 years ago, Jesse James took a bullet to the back of the head from the gun of one of his own gang members that shot him for the reward money. Nearly 90 years later, Jesse became "Bobby's Hero" on a very disturbing episode of The Brady Bunch. In the episode, Bobby is obsessed with Jesse James but later changes his mind when he has a dream in which his new hero shoots the rest of the Bradys in the back during a train robbery. Looking back, maybe the episode wasn't that disturbing after all.

World's Tallest Man Gets Hitched

Bao Xishun, a 7 ft. 9 in. tall herdsman from Mongolia, was officially listed as the tallest man in the world last year by The Guiness Book. Last week Bao married a 28 year old woman (about half his age) that stands 5 ft. 6 in. The woman in the picture is approximately the same height as Bao's new wife. It's hard to believe that at 7 ft. 9 in. tall, Bao Xishun is more than a foot shorter than the tallest person that ever lived, Robert Padlow, who stood 8 ft. 11 3/4 in.