Is the anorexophilia trend over yet? I ask because it's been at least a week or two since someone's told me how bad I should feel about pampered, middle-class princesses with no chance of ever having a real problem inflicting malnutrition on themselves in order to sponge a little sympathy off the chat-show crowd, which means it's been a week or two since I've told someone to breathe deeply, savor the atmosphere, and see if I give a happy fart.

... about that, at least.

I can't say that I'll miss the trend: Anorexia was interesting only in that it disproved half of one of those silly little aphorisms that people whose entire concept of philosophy can be summed up on a bumper sticker are always mouthing - that you can't be too rich or too thin - and it taught women in general that while big isn't necessarily beautiful, some people are just going to be bird-dog ugly no matter how thin they get. There really isn't any special diet that's going to help you out if that extra ten pounds of ugly, useless flesh happens to be the grizzled, warty bump at the end of your neck.

Well, except for strychnine milkshakes

Come to think about it, it's been at least a week or two since someone's interrupted an otherwise tolerable day in my life to tell me how to feel about anything that wasn't particularly bothering me at the moment - and shouldn't by any stretch of common sense, bother anyone at all. I can't say that I'll miss that one, either, but I do wonder what small-minded people are doing with all the energy they used to devote to espousing causes that only demonstrate their own small-mindedness.

But then, it is an election year.