Primrose Road

(Some of the) reasons I find Oprah Winfrey repulsive: 1. She's elitist, building a school in South Africa that won't necessarily help to educate young girls but will absolutely create an instant upper class of the "chosen," and presenting a model of "big give" charity that simply involves giving people things, often with an underlying-but-still-pretty-obvious advertising-related motivation. 2. She and her team of doctors support pseudoscientific beliefs in reiki, vitamins-as-medicine, and past-life regression. 3. She regularly promotes The Secret, which is at best bullshit and at worst fascist philosophy. (And somewhere in the middle of that spectrum is "selfishness" or "self-absorption.") 4. She seems to have a bit of a God complex, no? A 35-year-old writer in Chicago has started the Living Oprah blog, in which she will chronicle her attempts to follow all of Oprah's "lifestyle suggestions" for a year. This will be amazing.

According to Oprahdoctor Michael Roizen (an MD who, like Mehmet Oz, seems a bit too friendly towards alternative medicine), my "RealAge" is 24.9, younger than my real age, because I take my medications as directed, wear my seatbelt, don't talk on my cell phone while driving, eat fruit, and ... because my parents are still married. While Roizen's test can be a useful tool for encouraging people to start exercising, eat better, and quit smoking, I am not pleased with the implications that the children of divorce, those who do not attend a place of worship at least once a week, and those who don't buy into the vitamin supplement business are somehow in worse health than others. The site recommends that I manage my allergies better, get a larger car (!!!!!), take vitamin E and omega-3 supplements, and get a dog. In the test-prep classes I teach during the summer, we advise students to avoid the "1/2 right, 1/2 wrong" answer trap ... I think we may also need to advise Internetters and TV-watchers against the "1/2 good medical advice, 1/2 woo" answer trap as well.