Dollywood sued after woman falls from ride

CreditWh0re said:

Americans (on the whole) are grotesquely overweight. Anyone who argues that is simply not willing to accept facts. [...] Yes, you see more of it in the American South than you do in, say Los Angeles, but it's an epidemic nationwide.

At least google to fact check first. Yes, having a nationwide obesity prevalence larger than 20% is bad, however it looks like the midwest isn't much better than "the south". California, although doing better, also isn't perfect.

Source: http://stateofobesity.org/adult-obesity/

There's additional references if you click around on there.

I want to go on record that Central Florida is not really "the south." :)

I googled "fattest cities in America". Results vary depending on the source, one of the articles named Houston Texas as the number one fattest city. Another said it was Huntington West Virginia.
The thing that seems consistent amongst all the experts is that the fat people tend to live in a band through the central part of the United States, from the deep South up through the Midwest and into northern cities like Chicago. The thin people tend to live along the coast, both East and west, and in Colorado. Fat people also reside in Las Vegas, and Honolulu.

I live in what one of the articles named as the 16th fattest city. I subscribe to the theory that genetics plays a large part in what people look like and how they will turn out. I'm not huge but I'm not thin either and I know that I never will be. You can look back through my family tree and see 50 of me standing there, we're all pretty much alike, but we all married midwesterners and Southerners like us.

And whatever. We've been over this 1 billion times here on CoasterBuzz and the argument's always the same. I for one get tired of rash generalizations.

That there is an obesity epidemic is not a generalization, I don't think.

Oh no, I'm with you there. People weigh more, eating habits are out of control, and instances of diabetes is on the rise.
But it's unfair to say that all those people live in a certain section of the United States, namely the south, and all you have to do is show up at Dollywood for proof. Chicago, Buffalo, Cleveland- they are all in the mix too.

RCMAC said:

I for one get tired of rash generalizations.

It's not the generalizations I tire of, often there's truth behind generalizations and stereotypes (as little as we want to admit it).

It the condescending, dismissive attitudes and the "looking down the nose" tone of the generalizations that gets tiring really fast.

Jeff said:

Flori-duh!

Off on a tangent: the Sun-Sentinel's Flori-duh blog is always good for a laugh.

Meandering back on topic: while America does have a serious obesity problem, it's going too far to say "Americans (on the whole) are grotesquely overweight." I'll second what RCMAC said above.

Gonch nails it (as usual).

Jeff said:

I want to go on record that Central Florida is not really "the south." :)

Definitely!

Florida is really about three states. North Florida is "Scarborough Country." It is most definitely "the South" IMO, from Jacksonville all the way across to our L.A. (lower Alabama). Central Florida is an amazing mix of cultures both American and international - definitely not "the South". South Florida is more like Jersey and New York had a fair-weather baby....and it's just about as crowded.

LostKause said:

Yea. You NEVER see fat people at Cedar Point. I mean, it IS Ohio. (eye roll)

That's a true statement. They were always at Geauga Lake. Now they just hang out at Wildwater Kingdom.

I've been saying for years, "one of the better things about living in Ohio is that I'm never the fattest person at the waterpark."

RCMAC said:
I googled "fattest cities in America". Results vary depending on the source, one of the articles named Houston Texas as the number one fattest city. Another said it was Huntington West Virginia.
The thing that seems consistent amongst all the experts is that the fat people tend to live in a band through the central part of the United States, from the deep South up through the Midwest and into northern cities like Chicago. The thin people tend to live along the coast, both East and west, and in Colorado. Fat people also reside in Las Vegas, and Honolulu.

So the fat people live more or less right along the nation's belt line? How appropriate...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.