A Somber Walk To The Village Creek Blue Bayou Pondering Durango Obesity

The Village Creek Blue Bayou

Today it seemed to me a peaceful walk to the Village Creek Blue Bayou, with the Indian Ghosts who haunt this place in the Village Creek Natural Historical Area, was just the sort of contemplative place I needed to be to do some pondering.

The Blue Bayou was being particularly blue today, matching my mood. The leaves in the trees are no longer all green.

I want a house painted inside and out in the current Village Creek Blue Bayou color scheme.

The last time I chose colors, for the inside and out of a house, off white and brown was pretty much the color scheme. I was not a very colorful person at that point in time.

This morning I blogged on my DurangObesity blog for the first time in awhile. The blogging was titled The Airlines Are Getting Serious About Flying Obese Customers Of Size.

When I logged into the Obesity blog account I saw Gmail was among the Google products. I did not recollect setting anything to go to DurangObesity Gmail. I clicked on the DurangObesity Gmail and found 18 emails. None of them spam.

I was surprised to learn that I'd gotten email from someone on the production staff of a UK reality show soliciting my help with a program that had something to do with fat families in the UK and US. This person wanted to know if I knew any American families who were okay with being fat. The show was going to switch a UK Fat Family with a US Fat Family. I think that was the premise. Fat Family Swap.

I did not feel too bad that I'd not found this email in a timely fashion because I could be of no use, because I know of no American family who is all happy about being fat.

Another email was from the author of a book about the diet President William Howard Taft went on way back early in the last century. That blogging was titled William Howard Taft: America's First & Only Obese President. The author of the book was inquiring as to whether I'd be interested in reading it. He offered to email me the book in PDF format.

Another email shared with me that person's diet plan, asking me what I thought of it.

The other emails were of a similar ilk, one way or another.

By the time this day is over I am going to check the Gmail accounts of all my blogs. I am  guessing I am in for some surprises. For some reason I thought I had all incoming from the blogs directed to my main email address. Instead, apparently, it is just comments I have directed to my main email address. I did not realize people were emailing the Gmail address associated with the various blogs.

I am such an idiot sometimes. I freely admit this and don't feel this condition is anything I can improve, because it is what is known as a chronic condition.

Another thing that surprised me when I logged into the DurangObesity Google account today was to see the number of page views of some of the various bloggings. I don't think I saw this info with the old version of the Google Blogger. Some of the DurangObesity bloggings have had thousands of page views.

I knew the DurangObesity AdSense revenue thing was constantly generating, but I did not realize this was due to a large number of page views.

Like I already said, I am such an idiot sometimes and readily, freely, admit this.

William Howard Taft: Biggest Presidential Butt

This blogging would seem to combine all my favorite subjects, those being the search for the biggest butts in the world, its companion subject, that being obesity. And history. I guess this blogging would also have to have something to do with Texas if it truly combined all my favorite subjects.

I have no idea if our 27th President, William Howard Taft, ever visited Texas. But I do know he had the biggest butt of any of our Presidents.

Taft was also the heaviest of our Presidents. He was a fairly tall guy, 6' 2". Who weighed in at around 325 pounds. That number could go up at times.

William Howard Taft was our first president to take up the golf habit. And he did not start the habit until he became president. Taft did not like being president. He was not very good at it. So, he often escaped the White House to go golfing, which worried a lot of people that he was not taking his job seriously. During the signing of one of his administration's few important achievements, that being the signing of the General Arbitration Treaty with Great Britain, Taft escaped the signing when the weather suddenly improved, to go golfing.

Taft was known for falling asleep at any time. It was one of Taft's aide's jobs to nudge Taft awake if he saw him falling asleep. Taft fell asleep at meetings, funerals and even while actively campaigning, passing out in an open car during a motorcade in New York City, to the amusement of the throngs of onlookers.

When Taft was the Governor of the Philippines he sent a telegram to Secretary of War Elihu Root saying, "Took long horseback ride today. Feeling fine." Root wired back, "How's the horse?"

Taft went to visit the Russian Czar. He was getting out of his carriage when his pants split open. He then slowly backed away from the Czar so as not to expose his ample backside.

Taft was so fat, in the gut zone, that he could not tie his own shoes. A valet had to perform that task for him.

President Taft got stuck so many times in the White House bathtub, with aides having to get him unstuck, that Taft had a new tub installed. It was 7 feet long, weighed a ton and was big enough to hold 4 regular sized men.

I don't know if the Taft Tub is still in the White House. I do know Taft lost his bid to be re-elected. Taft got the lowest percentage of the vote, at 23%, of any President trying to get re-elected. Teddy Roosevelt, who had picked Taft as his successor, got more votes than the President, as did the winner of that election, Woodrow Wilson.

In 1921 the next Republican President, he being Warren G. Harding, appointed Taft to be a Justice on the Supreme Court. A job Taft liked much better than being President.