Wednesday 9 January 2013

Short List

Famous heroin addicts who were fat.

I can think of two (one old Nazi and a current pop star. Not that he's ever had any hits or anything, but he's in the papers a lot).

16 comments:

Old BE said...

On the subject of pop starts, I was amused by Metro's decision to place next to an article about Amy Winehouse's dad having a good old moan about coroners a photo of a baby rhino.

BE

Bayard said...

Ah, the old juxtaposition trick: it can say it all without any possibility of a libel action.

Mark Wadsworth said...

BE, teh baby rhino was cute though.

B, wot? There is absolutely no connection between the two people on the list, other that them being (or having been) fat faced and heroin addicts.

DBC Reed said...

Charlie Parker;John Belushi.

benj said...

Eric Pickles?

Mark Wadsworth said...

DBC, would you count CP as fat? Belushi is a good one though.

BJ, nope.

benj said...

Not sure if Boy George and Jim Morrison were fatties before or after their addictions?

Bayard said...

Mark, I was commenting on BE's comment re the baby rhino.

DBC Reed said...

See Charlie Parker OLDIES Com penultimate paragraph.

Mark Wadsworth said...

BJ, good ones.

B, fact is, fead people can't sue for libel, you can say what you like about them.

DBC, is there a picture of him looking chubby?

Graeme said...

Bird looks as if he had a bit of a corporation:
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSWFhTaYbrD9wxOxA4Jcq11S7VU1JHIPibLlEJnf3PWbRX84vhj

Mark Wadsworth said...

G, in that photo, like in most photos, Mr C Parker looks to be of perfectly normal healthy weight and build. I just don't get it.

Graeme said...

our definitions must vary - I say he always looks porky, exaggerated by his ample double-breasted suit jackets. But definitely on the porky side. I will try to locate official weights and BMI measurements

DBC Reed said...

Bear in mind that in the Wikipedia picture Bird looks like your standard middle-aged Afro-American businessman but was,in fact,33.Dead at 34.

DBC Reed said...

@MW
What Graeme say for pictures of Bird looking chubby.Also try googling the video of Bird and Dizzy Gillespie playing "Hot House" on live American TV ,preferably the one with the casual racism intro traceable via "Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie play Hot House after being insulted on TV"
The comparator is similarly addicted/talented Brit jazzer Tubby Hayes.Is anybody saying he was n't tubby? He did thin down at one point: he was then called Tubey

DBC Reed said...

@MW Before this thread peters out, thought I'd mention the unbelievably disinterested American Consumers Union report on Licit and Illicit drugs 1972 which examines in Chapter 4 ,the notion that heroin users should be thin and emaciated.They say this is only likely when the addicts are spending their food money on drugs; when eating normally and with pure drugs,they are likely to put on weight. The real shaker is the psychological evidence for some improvement in 1Q with opiates.Not much use if you're dead though.