Q&A

Q. Do you wait until after you work out to weigh in, so that you can claim another pound or so of weight loss?

A. Hell, yes! Because it allows me to claim another pound or so of weight loss. Also, because I understand my own psychology well enough to know that one more thing that will motivate me to work out will be the weight loss I will be able to experience, and record, when I step on the scale after my workout.

Q. What would you be doing this weekend if you were in Florida?

Driving to Sarasota to see old pal Nick Wyman open in the pre-Broadway premiere of A Tale of Two Cities at the Asolo Repertory Theatre's mainstage, The Harold E. and Esther M. Mertz Theatre.

Q. What is your weight loss goal?

A. I would like it if this Body Mass Index calculator would tell me that I am “normal weight” when I plug my numbers for height and weight into it. That would happen, barely, if my weight were 173.5. That would mean a total weight loss of 100 pounds.

Q. That seems dramatic. Do you have an ulterior motive for wanting to lose 100 pounds?

A. Yes. Then I could write a book and entitle it Big Man Getting Smaller: How I Blogged My Way to Losing 100 Pounds.

Q. Wouldn’t you just gain back all the weight on your book tour?

A. No. I would keep blogging, keep working out, and raise my calories per day intake to about 2,700 calories.

Q. What else would you do if you lost 100 pounds?

A. Keep up with my son, and maybe even my daughter who is a terrific runner and the best prep school cross-country and track coach in New England.

Q. Aren’t you getting old to be talking about keeping up with your kids?

A. Yes, but hope springs eternal. A mere 40 years ago, at about 165 pounds, I ran a 4:38 mile. I would settle for a 6-minute mile next Spring, and 17:30 in the weekly Fresh Pond Road Race.

Q. You are delusional.

A. Is that a problem?

Q. Don’t you have work to do?

A. Yes, and so I blog.



Bryan Ferry. What a cool bastard he is. He is so close to being me when I sing Dylan in the shower. And yet, he is so, so, so far away.



Listen, at the very end of the song, for the goofy laugh. I know that laugh. It is the laugh of a bloke who cannot believe his good luck in life.