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Add one part satire to two parts sincerity. Sprinkle on a couple of rants. Stir liberally.
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Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
If it's called Daily Blah, how come you don't ... hey, wait, you're writing every day!
See? Told you I'd try harder.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
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Daily Blah for... Thursday, February 13, 2003
Jonesing for the Sweet Stuff
I'm now two days' deep into the Atkins diet. The first two weeks are pretty strict, which means I'm able to eat all the protein and vegetables I want but nothing more, and drink nothing but water. The first two days, you're likely to suffer a headache or two as your body shifts from burning carbs to burning fat. And, as the book says, "you might notice symptoms of sugar withdrawl."
Boy, do I ever. It feels like I have two personalities, and one of them is a poor, pathetic sugar junkie. Yesterday I caught him persuading me to have a cup of tea -- just one leeeeeetle cup -- and I realized, just in time, it was because he was expecting me to do what I normally do -- drop two sugar cubes into the cup automatically, without thought. When I said okay, but no sugars in the tea, he had what I guess you would call an inner child temper tantrum. This morning, standing in front of the fridge, looking for some veggies to have with my omelete, I tasted something sweet in my mouth -- and realized I'd snarfed down a couple of grapes that happened to be in the veggie drawer without realizing I was doing it.
This lack of self-control is scary, but instructive. It isn't just a joke: you really can be addicted to sugar, in every meaningful sense of the word. This should not be allowed to stand. There should be no single kind of carbohydrate that you absolutely can't do without, as long as you're getting some (and the best kind is vegetable matter). Millions of human beings have lived happy and healthy lives without ever tasting sugar. It is possible. It should be possible, on principle. Unfortuately, as I noticed today while shopping for special sweet-tasting Atkins bars to mollify the inner junkie, buying food without processed sugar is practically the hardest thing possible in western culture. We're a society of junkies.
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