rockymtn_girl

https://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/lautens.html

This guy knows how to poke fun at the truly absurd. A drive through funeral home....now I've heard of everything! :confused:

The article is funny but the subject is somewhat disturbing. Are we really this lazy as a society?

threadend

I take it your question is rhetorical. One only need pick up a newspaper almost any day of the week to see articles extolling the results of the America's laziness. Obeseity, new "diseases" being discoverd that affect the overweight, medical personnel going on disibility because of strains from trying to move / treat oversize patients to name just a few.


At a highschool football game last night, I noticed the students are either fit or fat, very few were in between, and most were at the fat end of the scale.

Anything that caters to this lifestyle should be successful.

On the lighter side, I found the article hilarious when read in Andy Rooney's demeanor.

Maelstrom 

Thats disturbing but is soo true. I notice this quite often and I am quite concerned. Especially when you consider a simple fact. Being an obese CHILD makes it far more difficult to ever get fit then putting on some weight at a later age. I wonder what these kids will be like in 10 years. (shudders at the thought)

orguasch

No were not lazy.....
if we were then, god know what will happen to us, maybe we would be under the rule of some murdering leader, that i beleive we will not allow to happen, right guys

bac

I'm not sure if we are that lazy, but I AM going to check into this drive-thru strip club thing.

MeHT

It's also sad that they get no motivation. It's now okay to be obese.

"Dude, loose some weigth!"
"What? That's a harassment!"

*sigh*

rockymtn_girl

Yes it was. Although this article made me laugh, it also prompted me to think (yet again) on how vehicle dependent North Americans have become.

Maelstrom 

Ok then we can clarify. We are a physically lazy society and very rushed. The most important thing to a lot of Americans (I am including Canada in the American class) is to get things done quickly. workout can't be longer than 30 minutes. If they even workout. Drive throughs are everywhere. There are many many things to remove the physical aspect from society and many other things to encourage a 'large' (pardon the pun) amount of eating.

It is disturbing and distressing to walk into my old school where there used to be a total of 1 or 2 overweight children. Now it is well over 50% of the kids who are larger than average and even then the average has been increased.

Very sad situation for our future.

toolfreak

There`s nothing wrong with being lazy some time, in fact i`m lazy every sunday , but you have to keep it in good perspective.
I`ve worked as an outdoor instructor and it amazed me how easy some people gave up with first signs of difficulty.
I noticed also hugh difference between the people who played sports and the people who did nothing at home, sportive people ar far more resistable.



cheers

Pete Clark

I wonder if laziness causes lack of exercise, or if lack of exercise causes laziness? Probably both.

The really sad thing is that as you get out of shape and overweight, the more you are too embarrassed (or too tired) to get out of your car, or better yet, ditch the car and walk/bike/run.
Sometimes these folk actually give up, telling themselves it's too late to ever change.

It's never too late!

Alexey

It is not only in America. The same happens everywhere.

For decades a car has been a symbol of success in life. Many people could not afford it. They felt inadequate and envious becase of it.

Nowadays more people can afford the car. So that is what they do. They buy and drive cars.

The situation will get worse, when the Chinese will start buying cars en masse. This process has began already. This will be the end of Earth as we know it.

The car with the combustion engine is very malicious contraption. If you switch on the combustion engine in a closed room, a garage for example, you will be dead in minutes. On a calm day, when air is not moving practically, we have to breath on a busy street the exhaust almost as if we were sitting in such a garage.

Most of us do not need a car at all. Commuting by cycling or walking is much more fun. Being carfree is also liberating from hypodynamia, constant worries, sheikhs, etc.

For people, who are really lazy, there is also the better alternative. It is the car powered by the compressed air.

Ironically, Henry Thoreau lived also in the USA. His work and views make a lot of sense, especially now, when we see to what end it all came.

Matadon

Many good points. I agree that people are, for the most part, in a hurry far too much of the time. I've got quite a number of friends that would *never* consider cycling around town to run errands, and always offer the opinion that, "Hey, I've got a car, why would I need a bike? Besides, cycling is too slow."

Of course, most of these people are at least mildly overweight, and almost all of them are in horrible shape. I was helping one of them move a table the other day, and she was *panting* after having to handle about eight flights of stairs (total). *sigh* Eight flights of stairs isn't even a decent warmup for how many people in this forum? Don't be shy, raise your hands.

Americans seem to eschew physical effort; almost as if having to do some form of physical labor is demeaning. It's a social stigma to ride a bike around unless one is "exercising". Running is more socially acceptable, but not by much; people still give you odd looks when running on the roadside. We make idols out of professional athletes, but we scoff at the everyday ones. It's a sad state of affairs.

Kids are driven to- and from school; because it's "not safe" to let them walk or ride a bike. I'm sorry, but despite the media attention paid to kidnappings and such, they are fairly rare occurrence; your child is more likely to die on campus or in a fatal auto accident than they are to be kidnapped.

I could go on, but I'm running on very little sleep, so I'm not that coherent.

Pete Clark

What's up with this? This really has me baffled. Maybe someday someone will explain to me why some people love to wear mock "football jerseys," complete with the number and name of a famous player, in XXXXXXXL size. Why not just get out and exercise and quit idolizing people?

People live in fear of certain things because they are taught to be afraid of them. This fear, of course, has nothing to do with reality. It is far more likely for a teenager to die in an automobile accident than by anything else, including AIDS, drugs, gang violence, or crime. It's the #1 killer of teenagers--car crashes.

Chris L

I think people are just plain lazy regardless of what they say. Sure, they might come up with other factors, but more often than not these are just lame attempts to justify their laziness to themselves. Having said that, I consider it to be their problem rather than mine.

Maelstrom 

I love football and wear and xxl football jersey. Why cause it fits well on my shoulders, back and chest? Some people wear them cause they like them

On the other hand I would never consider wearing a cycling jersey because the only thing it remotely make look good is skinny people. Not my thing.

nebill

BaDgEr and I were chatting the other night, and he was checking out some items on eBay. First, he showed me an ad for a bicycle tour of Colorado for two along with an Olymipic cyclist! Opening bid was $500, and at that time, there were no bids.
Next, he showed me an ad for a day with a computer gamer...and it was up to $750!
What is wrong with this picture???
Given the choice, you can bet I would not be sitting at this computer!!

Alexey

On the other hand, ownership of a car is a lot of labor by itself. All these technical services, fuelling, washing, parking, etc. It is endless headache.

If cycling clothing would be accepted by society as casual wear at work, then commuting by bicycle would be even faster than by car, if measured door-to-door.

I did some measurements with my CASIO electronic stop watch on my 7.5 km commute. I am better off by bike time wise, but I need some additional time to lock my bike, and especially to change clothing.

Maelstrom 

Agreed. No more to add to that but yes. Most people think they are more physical than they think they are. I automatically compare my activity to my grandads. He was a farmer. 12 to 15 hours daily PHYSICAL (not just cardio) labour a day. While I don't expect to do or be able to even find anything to do that compares to that, that is my measurement. I will never consider myself as physically strong or fit as my grandad was when he was young. No matter what I do I really don't have the time to play as hard as he worked .

Maelstrom 

I bike. But I wouldn't be caught dead in cycling wear. At least the roadie stuff. I sometimes bike in jeans when commuting just to get out there.

bac

Just curious ... why?

Maelstrom 

I don't like the clothing. Tight clothing bugs me on many levels. It is just too uncomfortable. That and 90% of the clothing is made for typical cyclists. Skinny. I am an ex-football player and have huge legs and big back and chest. I look like some weird freak when I wear stuff like that.

In many ways I am vain and I seriously don't think cycling wear looks good on many people. My uncle is a pro xc guy and look awesome in cycling wear. However most people look like pylons on bikes (some of those jerseys are just GAUDY).

So in short it is a combination of my vanity and the fact that I can't fit into the clothing. (I don't even fit into mountain bike shorts. They make the legs too narrow. The only thing I fit is homey clothing )

rockymtn_girl

I don't think it's the sport or the athlete that people idolize so much as the obscene amount of MONEY professional athletes are paid.

Every armchair athlete dreams of being the 10 million dollar man out on that field/ice rink. It's the riches and fame that people look up to.

If someone were to start signing multi-million dollar contracts for professional cyclists in America, you can bet your a@@ lycra and coolmax would become the next fad next to Air Jordans.

nathank

well, a lot of it's the money, but not all of it... maybe the fame.

i say that b/c young kids - 3 yr olds, 8 yr olds... usually don't really grasp the money thing but they still dream of being American Football Stars. i grew up in Dallas and from about age 3-8 my "dream" was to be a Dallas Cowboys footbal player -- somewhere around 8-10 it changed and i just wanted to be an alpine skiier... (which sucked b/c i lived in Texas)

i hardly even knew that cycling or xcountry skiing were sports until i was about 20 year old!

i don't know... maybe the money makes the parents interested, and then the kids idolize the players their parents do... but then basketball is in general more popular with kids than adults...

Chris L

But mostly, it's probably the media hype. If the media say that Mr. Spanky is a great guy because he's the world champion at Farnarkling, chances are most people will believe it. Heck, most people around here would believe the sky was green if they saw it on television.

Bokkie

Drive through funeral parlour? I'd check the other side of the building. If it's a MacDonalds, I'd look for a conveyor belt going from one side to the other. I'd always had my doubts about the quality of a Mac, and a funeral parlour link would be proof consummate.

While back in London, they were fined when two customers found in one burger, an insect, and in another, a piece of cloth. The judged fined them for "selling food unfit for human consumption." A mate I worked with read this aloud, and said they've been doing that for years!