RETREADING

On Friday I began interviewing local "celebrities" for a hard-hitting piece on weight and dieting. I spoke to a local shock jock about the regimen that has allowed him to lose 50 lbs for his 50th birthday. He actually lost 45 so far and turns 50 next month, and told me that as a child he used to wake up, open a can of soup, take it out to the back yard and eat the whole thing, straight out of the can. I told him, yeah I did something like that too only I had to climb up onto the kitchen counter (very dangerous) to get to the candy. The *candy*. At least I chose something tasty. Soup??? Anyway on Monday I was doing my yoga practice and listening to his show (yeah I know but these days it keeps my mind on two things rather than 5,000) and said radio personality spent over an hour talking about the things we'd discussed on the phone. And I thought, Thank god I could contribute, and, Hmmm, I'm not the only one who recycles material. Like I'm doing at this very moment. And like we're doing with the sit-com. In fact there was zero chemistry on last night's blind date with a 36 y.o. (Yeah I like 'em young. And old) so I found myself taking mental notes. You know, taking a couple of observations and magifying the nuggets several hundred times, thinking: why yes, there could be an ex-boyfriend (why not cut to the chase) character who's a tall, handsome, paranoid low-talker and former Naderite who mentions things like Blue Man Group and Pro Tools in every conversation and doesn't like to share his appetizer. Yes, why not indeed.