🚀 go-pugleaf

J Alfred Prufrock <NOT@indigo.ie> wrote in message news:<ob8fvv0rsstk4loaejhg1rq9smro8e0k10@4ax.com>...
> On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 00:35:55 +0000, Dr Robin Bignall
> <docrobin@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> 
> >On Fri, 2 Jan 2004 15:08:21 -0500, R F <rfontana@alumni.wesleyan.edu>
> >wrote:
>  
> >> (However, the people
> >>of Chicago look very different, on the whole, from the people of New York
> >>-- half the people you see in Chicago look like they just walked off of a
> >>farm (NTTAWWF).)
> >>
> >>Well, so Stamford's sort of like that too, except for the farm thing.
> >>
> >Wow! Everywhere I've been in the States, the people looked pretty normal to
> >me, but were in general much friendlier than in London or Paris. Even in
> >Redneck bars in Texas. Maybe the British accent helps, plus the fact that
> >if I'm standing next to people for a while, I usually talk to them.
> 
> If you can get close enough. Houston, in particular, can boast of
> having the fattest people in the United States, surely making them the
> fattest people in the world, if you don't count sumo wrestlers. 

I assume you are referring to the Men's Fitness Magazine "study."

This "study" by Men's Fitness is junk science. What's really sad is
that other sources report it as if scientific fact.

You know what operationalizations (ways to measure) obesity they used?
Things such as number of pizza joints, weather, and number of sporting
goods stores. That tells us nothing about what the people actually
look like.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also did a study using federal
data. It was much more scientific and looked at BMIs. Houston isn't at
the top of the list of that one. I don't know why that one isn't
reported more often.

> As for
> backward rednecks, the rednecks found in Bush's boastful state are not
> the very worst in the country. You'd probably have to go to Alabama,
> Georgia, or Mississippi to find the best examples.

Small-town Texas is VERY different from big city Texas. And you are
right; there are more "rednecks" in other areas. Texas actually has a
large population of people who have moved in from places like
California and other states, as well as other countries. Houston, for
example, is very international and has a very diverse population. It
has a large Asian population. It's not "redneck" at all.