Bob CollinsIf your kid is trick-or-treating in the Fargo-Moorhead area, and is a little pudgy, maybe he or she will come home with a letter.
“I think it’s just really irresponsible of parents to send them out looking for free candy just ’cause all the other kids are doing it,” a woman, identified only as Cheryl, told a radio station in Fargo.
The Halloween fat letter is probably bogus. This is the station and program (Y94’s “Morning Playhouse”) that almost exactly a year ago gave us “Donna the Deer Lady,” a caller who was supposedly worried deer crossing signs were directing deer to cross the highways.
Erin Ryan at Jezebel isn’t buying the Halloween fat letter, saying it sounds like a radio station stunt — but then adds that it doesn’t really matter.
I’m taking this with a grain of Radio Stations Pull Stunts All The Time salt. Did you know a lot of those *cRaZy* calls the stations feature on morning shows are actually paid actors calling with strategically nutty and pre-designed stories designed to froth up the listeners?
I know a woman who used to do this. This sounds right up their fake alley.
But the authenticity of the woman’s intentions don’t matter; what really sucks is that this story is crazy, but not too crazy to be believed.
How many of us don’t know a person who feels how this woman purports to feel? And Meme Roth had a brief career as a pundit based on being “worried about” (hating) fat people (herself).
On the other hand, this flirts with being too perfectly stupid to be real, especially since handing out letters telling candy-starved, anonymized children that they’re too fat for fun is a great way to ensure yours is the house that gets “tricked.”
The inspiration for the “fat letter” may come from schools in Massachusetts and California, which sent letters home to parents of the skeletally challenged. Parents objected, and Massachusetts has backed off.
“That’s not something that someone can judge — the health of someone — just by looking at them,” North Dakota State University assistant professor of clinical psychology Dr. Katie Gordon told valleynewslive.com about the alleged Cheryl.
“I think that’s the main thing. Even if a child is overweight, they might be very healthy because of what they eat and how they exercise. It’s ineffective anyway because it’s not likely to help the kid.”
