The real tragedy is that in the same month they legalized pot in Washington and Colorado, they closed the Twinkie production!

Not if they are Teamsters and Bakers Union.

They still make Velveeta and Boone's Farm, it's all good.

The chocolate Hostess Cupcakes, or Sno-Balls were always my favorite, more so than Twinkies.

When I was a kid any one of them cost a whoppin 12 cents!

Good. Maybe the druggies will starve.

With all due respect for you and your father, I think the above explanation is a bit simplistic. I knew a man like your father; he was my high school math teacher. He was a retired Army Coronel and at age 56 he was in fantastic shape. But he was what they call "type A personality." These are people who create stress in everything they do and, for some, stress can be a killer. For example, what is the purpose of doing 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups?

It was almost as if my teacher thought he was still in the army. He was lean and muscular and straight as a board. I could see his stress in every movement he made, it was quite noticeable. And he died of a heart attack at age 58.

Sometimes no amount of healthy food can make up for out-of-control stress.

So the lesson to be learned is not that eating healthy doesn't do any good. The lesson to be learned is: In addition to eating healthy, we need to learn how to control stress.

Your lesson is not my lesson. My father was NOT stressed out. My father was NOT a type-A. He was a very patient, talented, kind, decent man who took time to enjoy life. He was an amazing artist. He wrote poetry. He turned down several opportunities after WW-2 to fly commercially because it was far more important to him to stay at home with his family. Why do the push-ups & sit-ups? He was staying in shape. He had great disipline. He always tried to do the right thing. But he was NOT stressed out. I wish I could be much more like him, and less like me.

Maybe I'm wrong but it sounded like you were making a case against healthy eating. No one ever died because they ate healthy and stayed in shape (unless the healthy eating wasn't all that healthy). Everyone has a different opinion of what healthy eating consists of.

I was. For ME. Life-long so-called "healthy eating" habits didn't help my father one single bit. So for ME I now eat what I want when I want it. As I said earlier that doesn't mean I go home at night and suck on a stick of butter, but what it does mean is that I don't care what the Food Police and the other nannies have to say about it. Others can make whatever choices they want for THEIR lives. I've made my own choice.

When push comes to shove all that matters is that you feel good!
Almost ANYTHING in excess is not good for you. But, as you said, you have to make your own choices.

Personally, I basically do what you do - eat whatever I want. Now I grant you I am not in the best of shape (on the heavy side) however at 62 I am lucky that, so far, I have never been in a hospital, take no pills and feel great. Who knows, when the man upstairs comes to get you then. . . it's your time!

I can understand that........ Hey, might as well light up a cigarette and enjoy yourself.

Shimpie...you need to google "Hostess CEOs" and you will discover that prior to filing for bankruptcy, the Hostess CEO's all gave themselves wage increases...some from $800,000 to $3 million.

Unions often get bashed for wanting living wages...but the other side of the story often goes unreported. Just saying....

So glad to see someone in the Villages say something positive about Unions....Many people don't realize the benefits they would not have if it were not for unions...for starters...weekends and/or holidays off...safe working conditions...ergonomics...

An article in todays paper gave a good explaination. Hostess makes Twinkies and Wonder Bread. The union forbid both products, although coming from the same plant, be shipped in the same truck, thus adding additional drivers and trucks. Not only that, workers that loaded twinkies into a truck could not load Wonder Bread and visa versa, adding more union employees. All this added to expenses for the products. An example of unions putting a company out of business as I personally observed at Eastern Air Lines and Pan Am.
My problem is trying to justify if I own a company and want to give people jobs, how can they have the nerve to tell me how much I can pay and what benefits I will provide if I'm within the law? If they don't like it nobody is forcing them to work there. As far as safe working conditions, OSHA is covering that, usually to the extreme. Just my opinion.