Reading about fatcats and fat folks in Homer

by philg

The July/August issue of Atlantic Monthly has a small story on “top ten deadbeat Congress members”:



“According to federal statute, if a lawmaker misses a day of work while Congress is in session, he or she must forfeit that day’s pay.”


Senator John Kerry apparently wasn’t following the law.  He missed 146 days of work in 2003 and 2004 but pocketed the $90,933 in salary to which he was not entitled.


Today’s Anchorage Daily News carries a story from my home state of Maryland.  The story is about a 625-lb. gentleman named John Keitz who has not gotten out of bed since 1998.  [Note to men who’ve been divorced or dumped by their mates: Mr. Keitz’s wife Gina has stuck by him throughout his difficulties in getting up.]  My favorite part of the story…



“Every time Keitz must be moved, a major public drama ensues. … Two months ago, it took a whale sling from the National Aquarium in Baltimore and a flatbed truck to haul him out of his house.  A television news chopper monitored from above.”

11 thoughts on “Reading about fatcats and fat folks in Homer”

  1. Out of genuine interest, I wonder what you meant when you said “Note to men who’ve been divorced or dumped by their mates:….” was the point of that aside to remind these men that they really are losers ? What’s the issue you are reffering to ?

  2. Sam: Not losers necessarily but apparently less attractive as a package than a guy who weighs 625 lbs.

  3. Or maybe they happened to have married women less desperate or insecure than the woman who married the 625-pound man. Put another way, his wife’s loyalty may be based more on her own perception regarding a lack of options than on the attractiveness of the “package” she married.

  4. The way I took the meaning of this is that Mr. Keitz’s wife Gina is simply a good, loyal wife – it is a compliment to Gina.

  5. Since he can’t get out of bed, why doesn’t she help him with a diet? Sounds to me like a serious case of codependence…

  6. Since he can’t get out of bed, why doesn’t she help him with a diet? Sounds to me like a serious case of codependence…

  7. I wonder… was the guy so fat because of his lifestyle or was it a “real” sickness?

  8. You should start a chapter of “Massachussetts Millionaires for the Truth”!

    BTW The guy who wrote that article is a well-known extreme conservative lawyer and Armenian genocide apologist.

  9. If he can’t get out of bed, then obviously she’s bringing him his food. I bet its all buckets of KFC, and crap like that. You don’t get fat eating Bran Buds and Tuna Sandwhiches. 🙂

  10. Would be an interesting experiment. If he didn’t have his helper / enabler (wife), I would think he would still be able to walk. My guess would be he would gorge on food for a while and not be able to get up, then after several days of not eating he would be able to just barely get up… keep repeating this cycle. Mobility would be more marginal if he was ordering his food via the internet (ala PeaPod) instead of having to get into a car. He might have to ride a motorcycle instead as he may not fit through a normal car door (just like the World’s fattest twins from the Guiness book). Cruel, I know.

Comments are closed.