You’ve probably heard about this elsewhere, but I thought I’d weigh in on the matter.

Al Gore, probably one of the most outspoken proponents of “going green” to reduce the effects of global warming, may have some explaining to do. According to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, the former vice president is gobbling up whopping amounts of electricity while urging the rest of us to do our part — and if possible, more than our part — to cut electricity consumption at home:

Gore’s mansion, located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).

It goes on to report that though the average American home consumes more than 10,600 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, Gore’s home used nearly 221,000 kWh, more than 20 times the national average. His average monthly electric bill is around $1300.

What’s most ironic, it seems, is that since the release of his environmental documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, has increased by more than 2,000 kWh per month.

Over at the blog One Voice Out of Millions, a commenter suggests that it might be more fair to compare the energy consumption of Gore’s mansion to other homes of similar size rather than to the national average. But according to the National Association of Homebuilders, the average American home is 2,330 square feet. If Gore’s home is consuming more than 20 times the national average of energy, his home would have to be more than 46,000 square feet in size (larger than Bill Gates’s home!) for his energy consumption to be considered an “average” for his home’s size. I seriously doubt that Gore is living in a home that large.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, the argument is being made by Gore’s defenders that the main thing he’s trying to encourage people to do is go “carbon-free.” It’s entirely possible that Gore is participating in the Nashville Electric Service’s “Green Power Switch” program, which costs more, but uses energy generated through “clean” methods like solar and wind power. We can hope that he is. Still, even “all-green” isn’t always green:

“When the green power resources aren’t operating — for instance, when wind speeds are too low to generate energy — TVA’s other resources will continue to supply reliable electricity.”

Those “other resources,” of course, are the environmentally-unfriendly, non-carbon-free resources Gore is so strenuously urging us all to avoid.

The effort to reduce the human impact on global warming — and I do believe that there is a human impact on the environment — represents an inconvenience for the average person. It requires us to actively change the behaviors most of us have grown accustomed to without thinking twice: if it’s too hot, we turn on the air conditioning. If it’s cold, we turn on the heater. When we’re done with the newspaper or when we empty the 2-liter soda bottle, we throw them away in the nearest trash can.

Going to the closet to get a blanket, or turning on a fan, or placing plastics and newspapers in the recycle bin is a different kind of behavior. Thankfully, more and more people are learning that kind of behavior. But there are a lot more who aren’t, and who don’t really see the need to start because they think there’s nothing they can do.

If you’re going to expect others to change the way they live, unfortunately, you have to have a tough and compelling sales pitch, and part of that pitch is by walking the walk and showing how easily the consumption of energy can be reduced.

That’s certainly not the message that seems to have been delivered, and I have to wonder if it’s making more of those people on the fence think that it must not be that much of a problem if the “man” himself isn’t cutting his own electricity consumption!

All the water I’ve been drinking since this diet began compelled me to visit the restroom of a local bookstore last night. (It was not an adult bookstore! Get your minds out of the gutter!)

Anyway, I spotted some questionable advertising written on the stall wall. What was so amusing to me is that someone else — apparently a disgruntled would-be “customer,” actually made the effort to come back to the same stall and report that the “offer” was bogus, advising future readers, “Don’t waste time calling.”

I suppose that anyone else who might consider calling such an “advertiser” should be grateful, as hard as it is to believe that he’d actually come back just to issue a review of services apparently not rendered!

Some people have entirely too much time on their hands. They should be forced to spend their days cleaning public bathrooms.

Yesterday I had my third appointment at MUSC since starting one of their diet plans. In the banner right above this post, you can see how well I’m doing. (Ten of those pounds were lost on my own in the month before I started their plan, but still, that’s pretty impressive.)

This time, I met with a behavioral specialist. This is code for a psychology graduate student. The plan consists of a prescribed diet as well as regular meetings with rotating staff members representing different discipines: dieticians, exercise specialists and behavioral specialists. The behavioral specialist is supposed to get you to think about why you’ve allowed yourself to gain so much weight and why you (apparently) haven’t been able to say no to food in the past.

I met with a young female grad student who seemed nice enough. She asked me about setting a goal for my weight loss. I told her I wanted to get down to about 200 pounds, which means that I have about 66 pounds to go. She asked about rewards. I said that I hadn’t really thought about it. She pointed out that many people on the plan have found that by setting rewards, they can find a little extra motivation to reach their goals sooner.

The problem is, as I finally pointed out when pushed on the subject, unlike some of their clients — presumably some of their “success story” clients — I don’t want to say that when I hit the 25-pounds-lost mark, I’ll go buy a new shirt. Or that when I lose 30 pounds, I’ll go buy a new pair of clothing. Or that when I lose 40 pounds, I’ll go take a trip to the zoo.

I can go to the zoo whenever I want to, and I don’t want to buy clothes until I get more pounds off. I might end up buying a few new pairs of slacks before long because I’m already feeling a little extra room in the ones I’m now wearing. (The belt buckle is now one notch tighter.)

Anyway, I said, the main reward I have in mind would be that when I lose 40 pounds or so, I’d want to go have one dinner at Outback.

Seems to defeat the purpose of a diet, doesn’t it?

She thought so, but said so very sweetly. Yes, I agreed. This is why I haven’t bothered trying to set a lot of rewards. My biggest reward will be looking in the mirror and not being disgusted. Or looking at my next blood test results and being impressed about how good my cholesterol and sugar level is.

She then asked what my short-term goals were for the next week or so. Did she mean how much I wanted to lose? No, she answered. She meant in terms of exercise, which she noted on my worksheet that I hadn’t been doing a lot of.

Fine. I’d like to do the suggested 20 minutes of aerobic exercise for the suggested five days per week. I’d also like to start working towards the weight training for five days per week, too.

She started writing. Damn, I thought. What she’s writing is going to come back to haunt me next week. Somebody — her or someone else — is going to read that and ask if I made the goal.

I just hope they don’t make me come up with some kind of “reward” if I make the goal.

If they do, I might just go have a Rockhampton Ribeye just out of spite.

Weigh-in: 266.5
Total Lost: 23.5
Lost on MUSC Plan: 13.5
Left to Go: 66.5

February is Black History Month. I mention this fact as a reminder for those of us who have fallen victim to the excitement of our celebrity-obsessed society and have spent the past few weeks watching the Anna Nichole Smith, James Brown or Brittney Spears controversies play out. I’m not going to discuss whether there should be a Black History Month; I’ll save that for later in the week. Instead, I’d like to talk about a recent news item.

Civil Rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton just learned that his family traces back to slaves owned by relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond.

He called the revelation one of the most shocking things of his life. He then said that the news brought a mixture of outrage and pride.

Huh?

In speaking about the conflicting emotions he has experienced since it was revealed that Sharpton’s great-grandfather was a slave owned by one of Thurmond’s cousins, he said this:

“It’s important for America, because in the story of the Thurmonds and the Sharptons, there’s the story of the shame and the glory of America. The shame is that people were owned as property, and the shame is that every time I write my name now, I will think about how I got that name. The shame is that I am the heir of those who were property to the Thurmond family.”But the glory is that Strom Thurmond ran for president in 1948 on a segregationist ticket. I ran in `04 on a ticket of racial justice. I got 10 percent of the vote in South Carolina. I beat (former Vermont Gov.) Howard Dean and (retired Army Gen.) Wesley Clark in South Carolina.

“I wonder what my great-grandfather would have thought about that.”

I wonder that, too. But since I have no way of knowing, I’ll ask some of my own questions about this “furor.”

First, there’s that basic question: was Sharpton surprised to learn that his descendants were once slaves owned by white people in the South? Can any black person whose family was from the south possibly be surprised by such a finding? And in particular, can a Civil Rights leader from the south really be surprised by it? It is a sad, unfortunate fact of history that whites owned blacks before the Civil War. Blacks weren’t guests, weren’t tenants. They were property. I learned this back in middle school history. I thought that anyone who made it as far as ninth grade was fairly clear on this simple fact. Anyone who hasn’t gotten that by now has apparently spent decades not paying attention to history class and the country’s near-constant discussions of racism.

Sharpton said that he hopes he can take the name that was given to him because his great-grandfather was property and make that name stand for freedom-fighting. Does he, as a Civil Rights leader, not think that this is what he’s already been standing for? What else but freedom — from prejudice, from racism, from inequality — does a Civil Rights leader set as the ultimate goal of their quest?

Second, there’s the question of the slave owner. Would it have been less of a shock to him if the person who owned his great-grandfather hadn’t been related to Strom Thurmond, whom Sharpton believes was a racist? If so, how could that possibly be? The ownership of slaves was a common practice across the south at the time. It was accepted as normal. To that extent, and by today’s standards, all slave owners were racist, right? Why else would they willingly treat people as property? So what difference should it make whether Strom Thurmond’s family owned his ancestor or not? The “who” doesn’t change the “what.”

Third, there’s that follow-up question about that specific relative of the actual slaveowner. To wit, was Strom Thurmond a racist? It sounds like a silly question, since Thurmond ran on the “Dixiecrat” ticket, advocating segregation. But that was 1948. When Sharpton met Thurmond face to face in 1991, Sharpton admits that he wasn’t happy about Thurmond’s past. The thing is, there are a lot of white people who aren’t any more happy than Sharpton was about that past. Does Sharpton think Thurmond changed over the years? It certainly seems that as far as he’s concerned, it wasn’t a possibility.

But some of Thurmond’s colleagues aren’t as sure of that. Take Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn, who is black and represents South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District in Washington. Clyburn has my respect and my vote. He was head of the Congressional Black Caucus when he said this of Strom:

“Senator Thurmond was symbolic of the Old South, but his willingness to change over time set an example for many South Carolinians.”

Then there’s state senator Kay Patterson, an outspoken character at the statehouse who pulls no punches when it comes to the subject of racism. He said of Thurmond:

“Paul had an experience on the road to Damascus, and Strom Thurmond also had an experience on the road to Damascus. And after that experience, I always supported Strom Thurmond for political office because he would do constituent service for all South Carolinians, including me.”

Naturally, there’s a lot of debate over whether Thurmond died a racist. Regardless of whether or not Clyburn or Patterson are right, that Thurmond actually did change, the assumption that because Thurmond was once a racist means he must always remain one is quite disturbing.

Particularly when you consider that this is Black History Month.

After all, isn’t the purpose of celebrating Black History, and specifically, the Civil Rights movement, to remind all of us that we not only can change, but that we must change, to make sure that the color of our skin doesn’t define who we are on the inside?

There’s something to think about before the end of the month. And after.

There’s a new feature about a third of the way down my sidebar called “Feevy.” It allows a blogger to enter the web addresses of blogs he reads, then it will place a quick preview of the most recently-updated from that list. If the sneak peek peaks your interest, you can follow that link to the blog.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

In my last post, I mentioned that I had abandoned Stephen King’s latest novel, Lisey’s Story, for a debut novel, The Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill.

I received this comment from Robin in Texas:

“Patrick, did you know that Joe Hill is Stephen Kings son? I saw him on [Good Morning America] last week. How funny that you set aside a book by the father and chose, perhaps unknowingly, to read one written by his son.”

I did miss the interview: I’m a Today man, myself. But I do think it’s ironic, and I immediately began wondering why I didn’t know that Hill is King’s son. I immediately looked at Joe Hill’s website. I couldn’t find any mention of the famous father there. Then I looked in the next-most obvious place: the book jacket from the novel:

“A multiple award winner for his short fiction, author Joe Hill immediately vaults into the top echelon of dark fantasists with a blood-chilling roller-coaster ride of a novel, a masterwork brimming with relentless thrill and acid terror.”Joe Hill is the author of the acclaimed story collection 20th Century Ghosts. He lives in New England.”

Even John Scalzi’s recent author interview with Hill makes no mention of Stephen King.

So now maybe the question is no longer, “Why didn’t I know,” but now, “How could I have known?”

That leads me to another question: if you’re a debut novelist and your father happens to be one of the most popular novelists in the world, would you hide that fact? Would you assume from the start that everyone already knew? Do you think it would come up in conversation, at least in the first interviews you did? Wouldn’t you make mention of it on your website? And wouldn’t you think your publisher would be sure to mention it as a selling point in terms of one writer’s work being influenced by such a prolific one?

Not that it wouldn’t cause pressure for the debut novelist. But I would think that pressure would always be there, anyway, even if the world didn’t know who the father happened to be.

I just find it odd that it seems the fact is being either ignored or hidden.

By the way, I am enjoying Heart-Shaped Box so far. I don’t think I’ll be setting it aside because of a lot of inside, meaningless lingo.

They’re the familiar landmarks that make you a double-take. Or maybe they’re the buildings you’d love to work in, or the homes you’d love to live in. The American Institute of Architects recently published a list of 150 favorite pieces of architecture which you can view here if you need some inspiration. You, fortunately, only have to come up with a list of seven. (And no, your seven do not necessarily have to be on their list.)

But first, though Kathy of Kathmandua, PA was first to leave a comment stating that her responses were up, since she didn’t leave the specific link to her post, according to the rules, Chele, of “On the Tip of My Fingers…,” is declared first to play last week! Congratulations, Chele!

On to this week’s question!

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:
Name your seven favorite pieces of American architecture.

Either answer the question in a comment or answer it in your journal and include the link in a comment. (To be considered “first to play,” a link must be to the specific entry in which you answered the question.)

My answers:
1. Chrysler Building
2. Golden Gate Bridge
3. United States Capitol
4. Biltmore House
5. The White House
6. Maymont House
7. Kaufmann Residence (Fallingwater)

You might not recognize this guy’s face, but you definitely know who he is. His name is Elwood Edwards, but he goes by the nickname El.

No, I didn’t expect that to joggle your memory; I just wanted to properly introduce you before explaining why you really do know him.

This broadcaster-turned-voiceover artist was approached way back in 1989 by a company looking to release a new version of its software for Mac users. Their idea was to work a human voice into the software that could be heard by users when they first launched the program. The voice would also alert them to other important situations, including the completion of file downloading and the receipt of mail.

I’m sure that from that description, you’ve figured out that El is the guy who says, “You’ve Got Mail” when you start AOL. Since that 1989 experiment, it has been El’s voice that has appeared in every version since.

(Of course, “You’ve Got Mail” is gramatically incorrect, because you’ve would translate into you have which would mean, “You have got mail.” What they should have had him say all those years ago was simply, “You have mail.”)

At El’s website, you can actually have the man himself add your name to each alert. I could hear, for example, “You’ve got mail, Patrick.” You could, too, if you wanted him to call you Patrick. You can also order custom alert sets in which he would say exactly what you want him to say — within reason, I should think.”

So would you consider having him record customized alerts?

There’s a wonderful magazine out there that you may never have even heard of. But it’s one that I’d highly recommend. It’s called mental_floss, and it’s quite entertaining because it’s full of odd facts and anecdotes about trivia. Its slogan reads, “Where knowledge junkies get their fix.” Sometimes it’s nice to escape the reality of the world for a little while.

The latest issue, March/April 2007, spotlights the 20 Greatest Mistakes in History. (You might be surprised that the War on Terror did not make the list…but I digress.) There’s also an informative explanation on how biodeisel works, a profile of linguist/activist Noam Chomsky, whom it labels “famously unknown.” And that’s just the beginning.

A taste of some of the critical pieces of information includes a two-page spread on taxes and the IRS. Know how many different tax forms the IRS produces? Or how much money the IRS collected from individuals in 2006? Or that the IRS actually came up with a plan to collect taxes even after the country was decimated by a hypothetical nuclear war? (As if we wouldn’t have enough to worry about!)

There’s a regular column written by Jeopardy alum Ken Jennings, called “6º of Ken Jennings,” in which he connects two abstract things or people through six links. This time around, he was challenged by a reader to connect pie and Pi. There’s no need in my spoiling the ending, since it wouldn’t have been published if he couldn’t have found some way to do it! And I think my favorite column is called “The Dead Guy Interview,” in which there’s a Q&A with a famous person who is no longer living. The answers are usually tongue in cheek and reflect either likely interviews that really did take place or expected answers based on eccentricities on display during the subject’s fifteen minutes of fame.

The next time you’re in a book store, visit the magazine aisle and look for it. I’m actually considering subscribing.

Last night, a colleague invited me to dinner. He knew about my diet, and has been both impressed and supportive about my diet progress. He assured me that if I felt that I couldn’t go because of the diet, he would understand, but would like to have a bite to eat if I was up for it.

So I said yes, figuring that I could surely find something on the menu that wouldn’t be too damaging to my diet plan.

He had some kind of delicious lobster ravioli dish, while I had a grilled chicken caesar salad and drank water. The parmesan cheese wasn’t on the diet plan; all dairy is temporarily out of bounds. But I ate it anyway. The very light dressing probably wasn’t technically allowed, either, but on the diet, I am allowed to use that “spray-on” salad dressing Wishbone makes, so I didn’t stress out about that, either.

When the waitress offered those delightful buttered yeast rolls, I declined. That was tough. When the waitress asked if I’d care for a slice of delicious Key Lime Pie, one of my favorite desserts, I declined. That was tough, although oddly not as tough as refusing the big fat yeast roll.

In any case, I took the gamble by eating out instead of eating at home with the assistance of my little diet scale. It seems to have paid off: this morning, I had still managed to lose another half-pound.

There have been other occasions in which I have “cheated” slightly. For instance, there’s coffee. I’m allowed to have coffee, as long as there’s no cream, liquid or powder. There is no lightener, it was explained to me by the dietician, that contains zero calories. Therefore, any coffee I drink would have to be black.

Sorry, no can do.

I’ve had a couple of cups of coffee since the diet began. I’m happy to use Splenda instead of Sugar. No problem there. But I can’t drink coffee without at least a little creamer. It doesn’t have to be heavy cream or even whole milk. Half and half is fine. Skim is fine. Powdered stuff is fine. Whichever has the least calories is fine. But going without isn’t.

With 21.5 and a half pounds now off, I’m not going to become a fanatic about “no cream in the coffee.” There has to be a little allowance.

Did the grilled chicken caesar cost me a pound, or even a half-pound? Who cares. At home, I could have had the exact same dinner. Did the teaspoon of creamer a few days earlier keep me from the next half-pound? Who cares. Eventually, the shakes and snack bars will go away — and that day can’t come soon enough, incidentally. Eventually, I’ll have to go back to a somewhat “normal” diet, even though I will hopefully be eating less of it.

How do you rate? It’s a simple question, really. But then again maybe it isn’t. We’ll soon find out!

Last week, it was Nichole of “My Two Cents” was first to play last week for the second week in a row and who, like me, ranked as “Bob Barker” in the game show host quiz. Congratulations again, Nichole.

Here are this week’s “Saturday Six” questions. Either answer the questions in a comment here, or put the answers in an entry on your journal…but either way, leave a link to your journal so that everyone else can visit! To be counted as “first to play,” you must be the first player to either answer the questions in a comment or to provide a complete link to the specific entry in your journal in which you answer the questions. A link to your journal in general cannot count. Enjoy!

1. Rating them on a scale of one to ten, which of the following aspects of your life would you think rates the highest: mind, body or spirit?

2. Rating them on a scale of one to ten, which of the following aspects of your life would you think rates the lowest: friends/family, love or finance?

3. Considering all six categories, which do you think would rank closest to the middle, a “5″?

4. Take the quiz: How does your life rate?

5. Of the first three questions, how many of your responses match the responses of the quiz?

6. Which of the test’s responses do you disagree the most with and why?

If you have a Reader’s Choice question you’d like to see asked (and answered), click the e-mail link in the Blogger profile and send it to me.

MY ANSWERS:
1. Mind.

2. Love.

3. Finance.

4. Here’s mine:

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	4.4
Mind:	4.5
Body:	3.3
Spirit:	5.8
Friends/Family:	3
Love:	0
Finance:	6.3
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

5. One.

6. The “love” result. I should think that someone who is not in love but is looking for it should rank lower than one who is not in love and happens not to be looking for it. That’s like saying someone who doesn’t have an appetite at a given moment is the most hungry or all.

I had a follow-up visit at MUSC, this time with an exercise expert, yesterday. He seemed quite impressed with my accomplishments so far. So am I, actually. As of this morning, I’ve managed to shake off 21 pounds. I’m liking this. In fact, the little snack bars and diet shakes are getting more and more tolerable as the pounds come off.

Then the exercise guy started talking about exercise. I knew it would happen.

He wants me, over the next two or three weeks, to get into the habit of doing aerobic exercise for 20 minutes per day for five days per week. By the end of week 15, I should be doing aerobic exercise up to 40 minutes per day. This will seriously curtail on my lazy-time. Weight training is also a part of it, and I’ll have to work that in over time, too.

Exercise is probably the part I least look forward to, but as he pointed out, it’s probably the only way to raise the good cholesterol as the diet lowers the bad.

Anyway, I got a bit of a shock last night. I had to run to Wal*Mart because I was running low on dog food. I bought a 20-pound bag and was shocked to realize, as I was carting it from the car to my door, how heavy 20-pounds really is. And I’ve been carrying around that much extra weight for months. That’s a lot of weight, especially when it’s around your belly!

No wonder I’ve been so tired!

A new law proposed in Tennessee would require that aborted fetuses be issued death certificates.

It’s amazing to me that in a country that values one’s individual freedoms so highly, we can have so many attempts to curb that freedom through legislation.

I found mention of this law over at Tayloropolis, a blog written by a fellow Charleston resident. Taylor does a fine job of attacking this law herself:

“A fetus is not live, breathing baby. You can’t issue a death certificate for something that has never been born! Are they also going to start issuing death certificates for miscarriges?”

And that’s just the beginning. I highly recommend that you read her post and think about where you stand on this. Even if you are against abortion, and I respect your opinion if you are, I hope you can see how overboard this idea is.

Not everyone who chooses legally to have an abortion is amoral or irresponsible. I can’t see why we as a society feel the need to torment them further.

When you’re asked to come up with five secrets about yourself, it shouldn’t be so difficult. When you add to that simple request the fact that you’ve written a blog for three years, you wonder how many secrets might be left. (At least, how many that you don’t mind sharing with the blogosphere!)

A while back, Georganna Hancock of Writer’s Edge tagged me for just such an endeavor. So, after much thinking, I finally came up with five.

1. When I was in first grade, I attended a speech therapy class for part of the year because I initially had lots of trouble pronouncing the “r” sound. Once I finally succeeded, my mind just clicked and I never had a problem with that again.

2. Because I have one of those last names that can also be a first name, like Thomas or Michael, I have been sometimes mistakenly addressed by my last name as though it were my first name. It happened for the first time in kindergarten, so I no longer correct people when it occasionally happens now.

3. Years ago when I directed newscasts, I threatened to punch the show “just as it was scripted,” meaning that I would make the many errors I was seeing on scripts because of sloppiness on the writers’ parts. But I could never bring myself to actually sabotage the show on the air, even when the scripts were incomplete or flat-out wrong. Damn work ethic.

4. My first time in a television studio was when I was about three or four. My first time actually working in a television studio was when I was about fifteen, when I was helping my dad. He was doing a miniature pyrotechnics gag for a local Pepsi promotion, and I was the one who got to press the button to make the small charge of flash powder ignite.

5. My first time being published was in seventh grade, when the local newspaper published a Letter to the Editor I had written explaining why the Confederate Flag should have been removed from the dome of the South Carolina State House. That was probably some time around 1982 or 1983. It took another 17 years or so before the lawmakers finally listened to me!

If you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged as well. Leave a comment with a link to your post…if you choose to reveal!

A friend sent me this and I had to share it. There’s some doubt as to whether this is real or staged, but if it is real, it’s one of the funniest things ever: a little old woman exacts revenge on a younger, impatient driver who’s a little too eager to speed away.

You can tell from the license plate and the traffic signs that this isn’t in the United States. But if her bag really did make his airbag deploy, I’d say he got what he deserved.