Entry for April 14, 2007

My goodness, we are becoming a fat nation.
That was the thought that struck me as I tucked into my full English at the Nairn Lochloy Holiday Park and glanced at my fellow diners. I do not include myself in this, of course. My doctor confirmed that I am only mildly overweight. I congratulated myself on this as I wolfed into my sautéed potatoes (an essential element of any breakfast I feel) and stared at the fat people.
It wasn’t always like this. When I was at school, I remember that every class had a fat kid. One fat kid. The Fat Kid. They were the butt of cruel jokes. They were called fatty. Or Ten Bum Boyd. Or The Pilsbury Doughboy. But look around now, and every second kid is now The Fat Kid.
Thirty Years have gone by in the blink of an eye, and we have suddenly become Americans. We are rude and big and lumbering in our garish T shirts as we swig from coke cups the size of Lake Geneva.
We are the fat Yanks we once scoffed at in Bond movies.