Die(t)

Do you remember the 1988 film, released in the United States with the unlikely title of The Pope Must Diet?   According to Wikipedia, the script was based around the conspiracy theories surrounding the deaths of Pope John Paul I and “God’s Banker” Roberto Calvi.  It was intended to be a three-part miniseries, but after furious objections by the Catholic Church regarding the theme of the assassination of a bumbling Pope appointed when the instructions of the Mafia were misunderstood, Channel 4 dropped the project.  It was taken over and produced by Palace Pictures with Channel 4 financial backing with the title, The Pope Must Die. Most media outlets refused to carry advertisements for the film, citing its sacrilegious tone and the possible offense this would cause to readers and audiences.  The film and advertising were changed for U.S. distribution by the addition of a single letter … die => diet … and the summary on the VHS box was changed to imply that the movie was about the Pope needing to diet, not be assassinated.   Times must have changed since 1988.  We now have a Broadway play, The Book of Mormon, that mocks the central tenets of the the LDS church, and in spite of protests by Mormons, it hasn’t been changed to The Book of Herman.

So, why another rant about comedy that makes fun of religion?  It turns out not to be that at all.  I’m dieting again, and although the dieting itself isn’t so bad, my Mom might have said, I’d rather die than be starting another diet.  The irony is that weight eventually contributed to her death so I’m trying to pay attention.   Sunday, as we were getting ready to go to the theater, I tried on four pairs of pants before I found one that wasn’t too tight to wear for more that fifteen minutes.  Who wants to hold their breath through a play and dinner?  Who wants to diet again?  But it’s time.  I found a cool little ap for my Blackberry called the FatSecret Calorie Counter.  It calculates a target calorie intake based on height, weight and age …. and accesses a large data base of food items which it automatically adds to a Food Diary, providing calorie totals for the day.  It must be European based because it likes to use the metric system … and I like that because in the metric system, I weigh 107.  Unfortunately, that’s kilograms and don’t you dare convert.

So, here I go again.  Wish me luck.

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Tags: curmudgeonly rants, diet, feeling older, humor, movies, postaday, senior health

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