A recent column by one of my favorite writers, James Lileks, concerns a novel idea by West Virginia schools to help battle the problem of childhood obesity: Put a Dance Dance Revolution machine in every school. A 24-week pilot program showed that kids who spent half an hour on the DDR machine every day didn't gain any new weight during that time.
I have no doubt that this could work. A buddy of mine became quite a DDR player in high school; not only did he burn off (and keep off) all of his "baby fat" by playing regularly, but he actually worked his way up to state DDR champion in the process, making money at tournaments and everything. (I've heard of people who worked their way through college winning tournaments as well.) So my proverbial hat is off to the school officials who came up with this, because, if you've ever seen people play DDR, you know that they're having a great time, and if you can have fun and lose weight at the same time, you're onto somethng.
(And if you're wondering...no, I've never actually played the game myself; I'd have to go a long way from home while I was in the learning process. All I'd need to do is run into one student when I was bad at the game, and any shred of teacherly dignity would go out the window. And the one time that was possible--at the game room of Schiltterbahn when only my friends and I were around--I was improperly shod and couldn't play. Maybe someday...)
That's one big omelette: A truck overturned on a Virginia highway and spilled nearly 165,000 eggs. (You'd have to play DDR for a week to burn off the calories of an omelette that big...)
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