Street’s Last Act To Whip City Into Shape

Leave it to John Street to introduce an initiative that references the 12 Days of Christmas… after Christmas. Yes, one of the mayor’s final acts in office is the city’s new health initiative.

You may remember John Street as the guy who’s in actual shape and who takes care of himself, unlike a previous mayor who shall remain nameless. Street got the city out of the pointless #1 spot in Men’s Health’s fattest cities list, and now he’s doing belated Christmas caroling.

“On the twelth day of Christmas, the Mayor gave to me, 12 celebrations, 11 bikin’ buddies, 10 acts of kindness, 9 sunlight minutes, 8 tips on eating, 7 hours of resting, 6 lung expansions, 5 super greens, 4 luscious fruits, 3 action workouts, 2 water jugs, and a health plan, en-tire-ly FREE!”

Whee. Now that’s a convincing list to get you into shape.

Leftovers: F—ing Interesting

• The Language Log investigates the history of using asterisks or dashes to block out those d— curse words. Turns out it goes back to 1680! Fucking interesting, I say! [Language Log]

• Philly gets some love from CNN for not being as fat as we used to be. Yes, they’re praising our city for a woman (Fitness Czar Gwen Foster) who came up with the plan of “virtual ‘trips’ to creatively named cities such as Hon-A-Lose-It, Hawaii; and Las Veggies, Nevada.” Eh, sounds good to us. Hooray for a more fit Philadelphia! (Well, according to suspicious magazine rankings.) [CNN]

• Puppy in a hose! [Cute Overload]

• The Philadelphia Archdiocese is being sued under federal racketeering laws. Legal experts — surprise — say it’s a long shot. [Inquirer]

• Philadelphia’s Planning Commission seems kind of like every other kind of government in this town. Maybe the world. [Changing Skyline]

Amy Freeze Has A Message To You Fatties

Amy Freeze, NBC 10 weatherperson, had a chat on NBC 10 today about — what else — dieting and exercising. (I mean, duh.) Apparently, Freeze entered an 84-day weightloss contest in 1999 and won money and lost weight. (I also learned by this that her married name is Amy Freeze-Arbuckle. TMYK!)

Anyway, Freeze dished out fitness and eating advice. Here’s how she responded to someone saying it’s boring to drink water:

Amy_Freeze: Boring water? LOL It’s more boring being overweight than drinking dull water!

Being fat is so boring ROFL!

1999 Champions [Body for Life]
Amy Freeze Fitness Chat Transcript [NBC 10]

Quickies: 13-Year-Olds Have Amazing Stamina

• Hey, guess, what, the Comcast Center’s getting waterless urinals! Of course, the plumbers are going to install pipes that won’t even be connected so they can get more money, or something. Here’s an idea: Give the plumbers the money and don’t install the unless pipes! Wait, here’s a better idea: Don’t give the plumbers the money and don’t install the useless pipes. Yeah. I like that. [Inky]

• Aww, the Internet politically-obsessed have found out the City Democratic machine would rather not have the Internet! (Maybe.) Or at least an Internet that they don’t control. [Young Philly Politics]

• A teacher in Delaware has been arrested for having sex with a 13-year-old 28 times over an eight day period. Nothing to say to that but, uh, wow?

• Guess what? We’re all fat. [Bucks County Courier Times]

Wawa Combats Philly Fitness, Introduces Milkshake Machine

If you’ve forgotten, Philadelphia dropped from second to 23rd on this year’s Men’s Health America’s Fattest Cities list, which means that we fat Philadelphians are finally getting off our fat asses and doing some exercise.

Or, you know, it’s a stupid pointless list but together by a magazine. Either way, though, Philadelphians are fitter now than we were in the 1990s, at least in terms of mayor size.

Wawa, though, apparently wants to put a stop to it. They’ve introduced a milkshake machine. A sweet, sweet milkshake machine with sweet, sweet milkshakes.

They come in vanilla, chocolate, strawberry or coffee, but might not be available in all stores just yet. They’re $1.99. They also will curse us to a land of BMIs over 30 and heart attacks at age 45. On the plus side, though, they’re pretty tasty. Mmm.

Foodsday Tuesday: Breaking Thursday News [Phillyist]
Jan. 6: Philadelphia cutting down on the whiz wit?
Photo by Saffanna

Reality show for T.O.

Late friday afternoon, Banyan Productions issued a press release announcing that Terrell Owens has entered into an agreement with the company for a reality television show.

The show also promises Internet and mobile content, for those of you who have stronger stomachs than I do. The show is billed in the release’s headline as a “fitness reality show,” but there’s no explanation of what that means. The release also says the show “will combine T.O.’s passion for working out with his natural curiosity about other people.”

It promises guests from the world of fitness, sports and politics. T.O. interviewing Dubya? Or, even better, Rick Santorum?

Yes, I’m with all of you: I can’t wait for this show. And to prep you for it, let’s go with the new blog standard — an embedded video from YouTube:

Although this was apparently recorded by shooting a camera at the screen, it’s still T.O.’s appearance on Punk’d, and it’s still good.

Banyan Productions and NFL Superstar Terrell Owens Enter Partnership for New Reality Fitness Series [BusinessWire via BenMaller.com]

Philadelphia cutting down on the whiz wit?

Okay, I’m as confused as anyone about the whole Philly-is-cool media meme going around for the past nine months or so, but these things happen. Cities with cheap beer and real estate always get called hot every once in a while, and not all of the stories about this whole Philadelphia Renaissance are all hyperbole. So, you know, whatever.

But never in a million years did I think I’d see this: Philadelphia has gotten fitter. A lot fitter.

Last year, Philly was No. 2 on the annual Men’s Health promotional attempt-to-sell-magazines America’s Fattest/Fittest Cities list. (Philly was No. 2 on the fattest, obviously.) This year, we’re No. 23 on the fattest list. I don’t know if it was Rocky VI (or, for that matter, Salvador Dali) inspiring people to run up the Art Museum steps or people having to walk up several flights of stairs to their new condo, but I suppose we’re not (quite as) fat anymore.

Wait: Cool and not as fat? Be still my heart.

Philly Gets Fitter on Annual List [AP via NBC 10]

Uhh, guys? There’s some actual news now…

Headline from the Camden Courier Post:

And here I thought “non-news news” was only for the week between Christmas and New Year’s.

Fit body takes year-round effort [Camden Courier-Post]