WHO WANTS A HEALTHY, REFRESHING CLEANSE?

Well, I'm 50% through with the book now. And I'm inspired. With all of Dr. Kellogg's unique health methods, I got to thinking. "A Dangerous Pastime I Know..." That was a Beauty and the Beast reference for Diesel. Gaston sings those words in a song. Anyway, back to my thinking: so all the things the poor patients at the Sanitarium had to do were strange to say the least. I tried to justify these weird trends by the fact that the book takes place in the early 1900s so technology wasn't nearly as advanced as it is today. But then I realized that even today we have some really weird health fads too! I actually did some research for this post to share with you some (but surely not all) of the utterly bizarre health fads we humans have adopted in our own time:

1. Oxygen bars:

It's not just for the old folks driving their scooters through Walmart anymore

2. Ionized bracelets: 

Healthy, stylish, and allows to Predator to hunt you more easily

3. The cricket diet:

Could someone please suggest a good wine pairing?

4. The vision diet: (This one requires a brief explanation: There are these special blue-tinted sunglasses that makes your food look un-appetizing, so you won't want to eat it.)

I actually want these! I would be Iceman from Top Gun (in my own mind at least)

5. Diet soap: (just taking a shower can shed those pounds)

Does it actually melt off? Is this soap from the Lost Ark or something? I think I'll pass

6. Cleanse diets: (There are a plethora to choose from, my three favorites are the charcoal cleanse, the clay cleanse, and the master cleanse. Without getting too graphic, basically you ingest lots and lots of charcoal or clay, and they plow right through your system like a Rheinmetall 120 mm depleted uranium Super Sabot round punches through Iraqi tanks. You eat these magical substances, and you can kiss all your gluttonous indiscretions  good-bye! Now the master cleanse is a special concoction made up of lemon or lime juice, maple syrup, water, and cayenne pepper. Yum, yum, add some rum or vodka to that drink and JB will be the healthiest dude since that Juicer guy with the gigantic eyebrows. I will spare you any pictures of cleanse diets. But I will show this AWESOME tank picture.

7. Now this one I am willing to commit to: The Twinkie diet!!!! Hey, if it means I'll be healthy, then I'm ready to start. So apparently, twinkies are only 150 calories each. So you can eat 10 a day and still be at only 1500 calories!!! Miracles do happen! Who says Chiquita bananas are the world's perfect food???

8. Now I know we're just discussing health fads now, and not necessarily surgical stuff, but I can't help myself. Today, we have the technology to do crazy stuff, but not the sense to stop ourselves. As a wise man once said, "People got more money than they got sense." Truer words were never spoken. These last examples are the extreme measures people take to be young and beautiful: Botox, lip injections (among other places), and face lifts etc... 

Not Meg Ryan too????   :.(.....  I hope this post wasn't too long or gross. I'm going to go have a twinkie because I am the epitome of will-power and stick-to-it-iveness. 

See yall in two short weeks :)

IDEA FOR A NEW BOOK CLUB SEGMENT

Archimedes here.  I'm giving Baron a week off of blogging duty to rest his charming wit.  Never fear, though, he'll be back next week.

We are less than three weeks away from book club, so it's crunch time for those of us who don't read a book a day.  We can't all be Indy, after all. ;)  I've really got my fingers crossed that the rarely sighted Squid will show up for his inaugural meeting.  I'm about halfway through ROAD TO WELLVILLE, and I have to admit that it has taken a little bit for me to get into it.  Baron is about a quarter of the way through, and I get the impression that he isn't very impressed so far.

For each meeting we've had, I've tried to get us to go with a theme for our snacks and drinks,  but so far it hasn't really panned out.  (Probably for the best with ONE SECOND AFTER, since we didn't want to eat our pets!!)  However, for this book I have three possible ideas for snack themes: 1) everyone could bring a cereal centered snack (i.e. chex mix, rice krispy treats, etc.), or 2) we could go vegetarian with the snacks to honor the Battle Creek way of life, or 3) we could go to the opposite extreme and have anti-healthy foods (I have an awesome steak crostini recipe I've been wanting to try!).  What do you guys think?  Too involved?  Let me know in the comments!

Finally, the main feature of this blog post: an idea I had for an added segment to our book meetings.  It's call BBB - which stands for Bean's Bonus Book.  The idea came to me after Indy's post about all the extra books she's been reading.  My first thought was: I am so jealous!!  Then, it occurred to me that other fast readers in our group (such as Deuce, JB, and Cat) are probably reading books between meetings.  This thought collided with another thought that has been sitting idly in my mind: Bean has expressed interest in being in the book club, but so far none of our books have interested him.  He is a voracious reader of children's/young adult fiction.  Boom!  My idea was born.  Each month, in addition to the regular book club book, there could be a bonus book selected by Bean.  It would basically be whatever he is reading at the moment or plans to read, but then he can host a mini discussion for that book at the meeting, either before or after the main book.  It would just be an abbreviated version of our normal club discussion, but he could decide how he wanted to conduct it.

What do you guys think?  It may be that the fast-readers would prefer to use their extra reading time to read books of their own choosing, especially once the weather gets warmer.  If that is the consensus, then we can scrap the idea.  It was just one of those random ideas that came to me, so I thought I'd throw it out there...

If anyone is interested,  Bean recently finished THE MAZE RUNNER, which was recently made into a movie.

It looks pretty interesting, so I'm going to try to read it if I can finish ROAD TO WELLVILLE in time.  Hope everyone is staying safe and warm in this winter weather!!  (I bet JB and Cat are wishing they were still in the Caribbean...)  Until next time, Novel Spirits!

FEBRUARY DIFFERENCES

We are a small club, roughly eleven members. Yet as a group, we are experiencing considerably different February weather conditions. Allow me to utilize some visual aids to help me explain:

JB and Cat's February experience:

And the rest of our February's experience: 

Not cool JB and Cat, not cool at all. We hope you are enjoying your sunny holiday frolic in the tropics. Don't worry about us here in the real world. We're keeping busy stocking supplies and preparing for the imminent EMP attack. 

For those who don't know, JB and Cat are on holiday somewhere in a warmer climate, in between the tropics of cancer and capricorn. I can never remember which one is north and which one is south. 

I wanted to publish another blog entry this weekend, since I haven't since last weekend. I am giving myself an unwritten goal of one blog entry per week. Things could get pretty slow between book club meetings so I figured I should add something now and then in the interim. And what better topic than exposing JB and Cat for their treacherous villainy and villainous treachery!?!?

And even sadder, I am ashamed to report that I am still on page 4 of our current book. Archimedes informs me that it is good so far but she'll tell me no more. She even says if I had read as much as her, I could have added an appropriate reference on the topic of this post. Oh well, another opportunity gone by. Story of my life.

I'm off to read some more, but since it is currently 12:23 am, its possible I won't make it past page 8.

Until next time Novel Spirits :)