I gave a speech recently at my Toastmasters club in which I discuss my spirituality. It runs about 10 minutes, but please don't let that stop you.

I’m generally down with the message of self acceptance at the core of actress Jennifer Lawrence’s presentation to Yahoo employees, reported in this HuffPo post.

But to play off her phrasing, this is just dumb:

“You look how you look, you have to be comfortable. What are you going to do? Be hungry every single day to make other people happy? That's just dumb."

As if these are the only options? 

Often, we can see how askew our norms are, just by taking a step or two back from them.

Today’s case in point is how all over America, adults are trying to dispose of the floods of candy that came into their house for Halloween, either cadged by their kids last night at their neighbors’ doors, or perhaps because fewer than expected of their neighbors’ kids came cadging at theirs.

My wonderful boy, Joseph, was born in the late afternoon 4 years ago today in a Saginaw, Mich., hospital. His birth mom had said that would be the day and she was right — little of the drama and uncertainty that I've heard is so often part of that natural process.

Smart, energetic, observant, fun-loving, somewhat obedient, well-liked by his peers, athletic, creative, he's a good boy. Georgina and I are so lucky to have him in our life. In the biggest sweepstakes imaginable, we hit the lottery.

I got an inquiry from a woman in Melbourne who'd read my book yesterday.

Ideally, I'd have a point here, to say something like, "...and I thought her point was worth discussing with a larger audience." That way, I could slip in the info that a reader in Melbourne frickin' Australia had written to little old me, without looking like I was just crowing that I have a reader from Melbourne frickin' Australia.

Welcome to another installment of "10 Words or Less." Today's participant counsels clients who are struggling with food severely enough that they choose to remove themselves from home, family, and work for a period to get help. She is an author and cofounder of ACORN Food Dependency Recovery Services, based in Sarasota, Fla., which has developed a unique mode of treatment that I call "itinerant rehab" to help thousands of self-identified food addicts to regain their footing.

Name Mary Foushi
Born when, where "Nov. 18, 1952, in Milford, Del."
Anything unusual about the circumstances "Of the five children born in my family, I was the smallest, yet I ended up being over 340 pounds."
Family circumstance "I am in a long-term relationship with my partner, Phil Werdell, and we're going to get married on March 1, 2014.
What has been the overarching condition of your life? "Obesity, and it still affects me today," despite that she's maintaining a 195-pound loss for more than 21 years.
Can you give me an example? "I was recently invited to lead the OA retreat, and one of the first things that came up in me was fear that they would think, 'She's not in recovery. Look how fat she is!'"

My Hangouts On Air interview with Mary Foushi, executive director of ACORN Food Dependency Recovery Services. I'll post an edited transcript version a bit later.

Welcome to another installment of "10 Words or Less," in which I ask brief questions of interesting people and ask for brief responses in return. Today's participant is the author of the Yale Food Addiction Scale, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, and a researcher bound for greatness. Her doctoral thesis at Yale was the subject of a report on ABC's "World News Tonight," a story, I should acknowledge, that I was interviewed for through through her referral. We met at a private conference on obesity at Bainbridge Island, Washington, in 2009.
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Name Ashley Gearhardt
How many different ways has it been misspelled? "At least 3. The 'd' is tricky."
Born when and where "A little farm town in Ohio. Covington. June 18, 1982."
Anything notable about the circumstances? "I was three weeks early. My mother went into labor because she was square dancing."
What's your family circumstance? "I'm married to a wonderful man who could not have had a more different upbringing. He's a legal research librarian from San Francisco who grew up in the city. And I have two miniature wiener dogs who run my life."

I don't generally sign online petitions because I question what they truly reflect, but occasionally one raises an issue important enough to lift me above my cynicism. It is far more occasional that I also write to tell others about the effort and to ask them to sign as well.

This came into my view thanks to @yonifreedhoff. It's a Funny or Die spoof of a Chipotle ad that Dr. Freedhoff set up as, "if you've seen that, you've got to see this." And I'm sure he's right. But I *haven't* seen the Chipotle ad, and I still say "you've got to see this."