PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES (A second report on life at Duke University’s Diet and Fitness Centre in North Carolina) DURHAM, NORTH Carolina — For Canadians -and Americans, fatness is a - demon, one more horrid than demon rum against _ Which the prohibitionists raged. Most of the world wishes it had our demon. It doesn’t. We do, or think we do. So we go to fat farms. Duke University Diet and Fitness Centre is one of the most famous on this continent, It offers relief to those of us who: pant when we mow the lawn; don’t stoop over and pick up fallen coins smaller than two-bit pieces; have visions of : early heart attacks; and are embar- rassed to take off all their clothes in front of women to whom we have not been introduced. “Many of the statistics about fat are as misleading as all statistics are, but, in time, we come to recog-.° , nize that we are too fat and that is because we eat too much. The message at Duke is that all of us must change whatever it is we've been doing. ‘One lecturer said, “If you go home from here having lost a few pounds and changed none of your habits, you have failed this course.” The other part of the Duke mes- sage is that if you want lo continue : your ways, which are, frankly, a bit «© slobbish, go right ahead. It’s a free “country and the graveyards are only half full. _ The only restriction here is that you can’t smoke indoors and you may be tossed out of the program if “you get into the sauce back at your living quarters. With this as an introduction, let's look at the Class of May. 1994, New recruits (as good a word as any) arrive each week and stay for one, (wo, four, sometimes 12 weeks, Who are these people? They are one hell of an assortment, these people. At time of writing, our group contains a U.S, Senate Department employee, retired to Belize. She isn't fat, She and her husband planned to come here on their retirement. When he died suddenly, he made her promise to come alone, There is aman who weighs well over 400 pounds and can no longer walk, Fis wife pushes him ina wheelchair and buoyancy in the swimming poo! helps him to over- come this awesome burden, but when he emerges from the water he may. take five minules to get up the ladder to the wheelchair. There is a slim young woman who is attractive in spite of being bald-headed. She has had a go- round with cancer and is here for the exercise program. One of our group is a perfection- ist. Besides having a few million perfectly protected dollars he has a computer on which he has pro- grammed his rose garden so that the blooms, the colors, the haunting fragrances and thrip contro! have all been reduced to binary code. He is here because he can’t tolerate imperfection, particularly his own. A fat farm recruits in empty nests. A 50-year-old who has both daughters now in college gained 65 pounds on what were once 36-inch hips. “T eat normal, healthy meals but for five-and-a-half years 1 have been eating a ton of food between every meal.” The deeper discontents of our age also show. A stylish lady who stayed home for 25 years to care for the family discovered that her hus- band, who suggested she come, now finds the conversations of women lawyers, women doctors and women accountants much more interesting than her own. “Yes, 1am ignorant of many things because I've been cooped up inside a man’s house. Damn it, | am not unintelligent!” Duke, one senses, is a step in a long journey to somewhere far. And, as always, we have the happy recidivists, none more cheer- ful than the dieter who has returned for the fourth time. (Backsliders, who are not called that, get reduced rates.) “Pil stay three weeks and J will probably drop 12 pounds. When | go home [ll drop another 10, maybe more. I'l level off a few months. Then FH gain. “One year from today, Pl be back about exactly as fam now and ready for another course with golf {PATIO DINING § Junch & dinner CcOUVer SANDRA E. — LAWYER * Divorce "© Access * Property Division * Separation Agreements Family Violence 921-3394 ¢ Custody ¢ Support 682-6121 eApmeak tected ete) EDIT OT sth yatta = Ce ya seane mena rte unas nay onc Piiday, Mavi, -1894--.Norin 8 Shore News.-.9 . in the afternoons.” His fife has a purpose, it has 4 cenlain chythim; he isa happy man — maybe not the type of graduate Duke hopes for, but happy. Does that count for anything? CINEMA 1 SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE nightly 7:05pm FIOMEO IS BLEEDING Nightly 9:05pm Incoming framing order min: $30 PORN ye Off PARNCPAChon CINEMA 3 | SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES THE SUMMER HOUSE Nightly 7:15pm THE PAPER Nightly 8:45pm CINEMA 2 SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE Nightly 7:10pm SIRENS only 9: ofp - Restricted / | FREE BED FRAME | aa QUEEN SIZE 2 Piece Set all sizes cvailable 15 YEAR WARRANTY iE EE BED FR QUEEN SIZE 2 Piece Set all sizes available 15 YEAR WARRANTY 2 Piece Set _ all sizes available 15 YEAR WARRANTY Free Delivery, Free Set Up, Free Pick Up Of Old Mattress