A Normal-Sized Chair

From the Chicago Tribune:
Plus-size furniture grows with America's girth

This story shouldn't surprise me, but it does. Although I'm well aware that this country is getting larger, person by person, it never occurred to me that society overall was having to become Big & Tall to accommodate the growth.

I was recently talking with a friend about regional food, and joked, "I can't wait to move to the Midwest and get a big fat ass!"

I don't really want to triple my size on Illinois portions, obviously, but it is very clear that the region of the country has a lot to do with your recommended sofa size. We've all seen these maps showing obesity by area, and there are clearly some trends. This one shows obesity by county, and comes from the Center for Disease Control:

I live in Seattle, in King County, which is in the lowest category for obesity. This seems true of a lot of urban areas around the country, but Seattle has specifically done its part to kick out fast food joints, and encourage lots of outdoorsy activities to keep its citizens fit. I don't tend to partake of this "exercise" nonsense, but I do like the fact that, as ugly, granola, and hipster as we Seattleites are, at least we're thin.

By the way, this chart also indicates why Southern food is so damn good. Mmmmm.... fat.