Coming home this evening on the bus, I overheard, and then saw, a young mother cajoling her toddler to eat his dinner; there was love, there was affection in her tone, her words were dripping with it, but where was her thought? The kid's dinner was chicken nuggets and a handful of fries scattered in to the tray of his pushchair. Looking at the way he ate and the set of his face, this was n't the first, second, or probably third time, he had a fast food dinner.

I'm guessing at how old he was, two, three, maybe four, and already he had an uncomfortable pudginess that probably is going to dog him all of his life: concomitant poor health, body image issues, self-esteem battles. Except that fatness, right now, is virtually the norm. It's everywhere.