The 2nd Biggest Loser, Transformed

This is Ed Brantley at the beginning of this season of "The Biggest Loser." Ed is fat.


This is Ed today. Ed lost weight, but only enough to earn 2nd place. Ed is skinny, but not the Biggest Loser.


This is Ed six months from now. Ed wishes he won Biggest Loser. Ed appears maladjusted.



This is Ed in a year. Maybe if Ed didn't eat all those coneys and hobbitses, he would have won Biggest Loser.

Back in the Saddle Again

It's been a few weeks since my last post, so I thought I'd hit a couple of recent highlights to start things off.

1. Thanksgiving Day -- Malerie woke me up and told me there was a football game going on that morning that my friends wanted me to go play in. Now, when Malerie (harpist) and I got married, I envisioned being woken up every morning to the melodious sound of the harp. Hasn't happened. But the next best thing is being told I'm wanted at a football game. I'll have some more of that.

Later on, we feasted at our place with some friends, watched the parade, the dog show, and some football, and then capped off the night with two games of Cities and Knights of Catan. I'd like to thank the sheep that helped me bring home a warm, wooly victory.

That night, after such an amazing day, I didn't want to go to bed. So I didn't. I drove to Target at 1:30 in the morning and got in line for Black Friday. Holding down the fort as #2 in line out of I don't know how many hundreds, I sort of dozed on the cement outside the front door, covered up by a blanket I found in my car, which if memory serves was the same blanket I peed on one time when I was little. But my dutiful patience with the unforgiving concrete and urine-stained coverings paid off, as I was rewarded with $13 seasons of "The Office," unnamed Christmas gifts for Malerie, and the very last Guitar Hero. As I grabbed that last one, much to the chagrin of a middle-aged female bargain hunter who swore at me like I had just peed on her blanket, I knew I had succeeded.

2. Winter in San Diego -- Is not like winter in Utah. Or Spokane. At all! Malerie and I both really miss the snow and can't wait to see it soon. I am grateful, however, that it has at least been cooling down here in California. After living here for 2.5 years without ever turning on the heater or the (non-existent) air conditioner, we finally caved and cranked up the thermostat this morning.

And now, a list of a few things I'm planning on doing while in Utah for the first time in 9 months:

• Double Country H -- Hires Big H
  
• Bacon cheeseburger (ketchup only), fries, blackberry shake -- Apollo Burger
• Reconnaissance mission to Hires for Triple H
• Shredded beef burrito, enchilada style -- Café Río
• Giant tofu log -- Wayne's Tofu Hut oh who am I kidding I can't even type that with a straight face
• Walk in snowy canyon with my mom and dad
• Build first snowman with Madeline
• Go to Cottonwood Mall, get gag picture behind bars in "old jailhouse," stop in at old saloon, tour old abandoned mine shaft
• Taking a break from all things medicine for a few weeks.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

50 Ways to Blow Your Cover

In preparation for the BYU-Utah game tomorrow, I've been reviewing some footage of the past two years. Doing so has inspired me to re-write the lyrics to "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," by Paul Simon. If your volume is up, you should be hearing this right now, since it's the Song of the Week.

It’s been a year now since you came to Lake City

Saying, “Coach Whit, won’t you please just start me at DB.

My man will never score and this I guarantee,

I’ve got game according to my mother.”

Now these days Coach Whit says lose the attitude,

Furthermore I hope my job’s not lost and that I won’t be sued

But Harline and Collie have left me one unhappy dude

Because you’ve found fifty ways to blow your cover

Fifty ways to blow your cover





If BYU pulls it out on Saturday, maybe I'll try to do a few more verses. If they lose, look for me at the bottom of the bay.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

What's the worst movie you've ever seen? It's a question I've been contemplating lately. Doing so has given me some bad PTSD, and I plan on suing the makers of the following four movies for the irreparable damage they've done to me and mine.

Here are my top 4, in reverse order, with a little Four Horsemen theme:

IV. Strife - "Wild Wild West" (1999)

When not even Will Smith and Salma Hayek can save you from the top 4, you know you've made something truly horrible. I remember being excited to see this movie, driving with my equally-unsuspecting friends to the movie theater in West Jordan, and then being subjected to two hours of absolute crap.

I'm a sucker for Will Smith movies (yes, even "I, Robot"), but there was one too many jokes in here about him winding up "in the saddle" with old-west floozies. And the plot, if you can call it that, was just ludicrous. I'll spare you the details and just say that it involves Kenneth Branagh constructing a giant mechanical spider which he uses to terrorize the western United States. Yes, someone actually thought that was a good idea for a movie.

I left thinking, "There's two hours and eight bucks I'm never getting back."

III. War - "Here on Earth" (2000)

Few people I know are familiar with this craptastic chick flick. Sadly, I am. I sent the girl I was dating at the time to Blockbuster with no specific instructions, and this was the consequence. Since then, anytime someone goes to rent a movie for the night, I give them the strictest of orders to avoid Leelee Sobieski like the plague.

Two friends crash a car into Leelee's parents' restaurant. They're ordered to fix the restaurant as punishment (note: if I had been the judge, everyone would have gone straight to the gallows -- the boys, Leelee, her parents, the customers, everyone). One of the boys comes from a wealthy family, and Leelee is the daughter of poor restauranteurs.  You're not going to believe this -- but they fall in love! Groundbreaking territory to be sure.

So there I am, trying to be a decent guy and watch the movie, miraculously stifling all of the thousands of snide remarks that were bubbling up inside of me. Then, at the dramatic end, Leelee's boyfriend returns after an extended absence and the two play "Marco Polo" inside their new home. He actually wanders around looking for her saying "Marco. . . Marco. . . " I couldn't take it anymore, and blurted out something about the movie sucking worse than 10 vacuums. It's like the production team played Marco Polo with their brains. . . and lost.

II. Famine - "A Walk to Remember" (2002)

I feel like going on a hunger strike when I think about this movie and the circumstances under which I watched it. 

Some girls convince me and my friends to watch it one Friday night, and since I'm interested in one of the girls, we go along with it. After two hours of Mandy Moore's maudlin performance and Shane West acting a fool, I'm nearly catatonic. But the girls go on and on about how sweet a movie it was and how romantic and what a good message blah blah blahhhh.

And because I'm interested in this girl, I do something I had never done before and haven't done since -- I totally sell out. I remark loudly about how I liked the movie. "What unbelievable chemistry they had," I say. "What a perfect ending. I'd watch that again," and other tall tales. Somehow my buddies refrain from calling me out right then and there, which is what they should have done.

I. Death - "Bicentennial Man" (1999)

I was a senior in high school looking for a good date movie. Apparently, the summer of '99 wasn't exactly a vintage year for movies, because we ended up going to see this thing.

Here's a quick tip for you young daters out there: On your date, when you wake up your date, explain to her that the movie is probably only another 15 minutes, and ask if she wants to stay, things probably aren't going so well. And when you then decide to stay and then the movie goes on for another hour, you can just throw that pack of gum in the garbage, because you won't be needing it for quite som

e time.

Robin Williams stars as Andrew, a robot who wants to be a real boy. If only a giant whale would have swallowed them all up. . . but I digress. Andrew's best friend, "Little Miss," is the little girl in the family he lives with.  Through the miracles of modern technology, Andrew becomes human. We follow his life as Little Miss grows up, has children, and then has grandchildren, one of whom Andrew falls in love with. All of this is happening so slowly that for a minute I wonder if they're filming in real time a la "24."  Needless to say, it wasn't a great night, and it was the last date we ever went on -- the death of our relationship.  That had to happen, but this movie did not.

Agree/disagree? Feel free to share your picks and/or traumatic experiences.

Overheard on my last day in the OB clinic...

...asked by a woman who had recently started breastfeeding:

"If I eat steak and don't chew it up well enough, will my baby choke on it?"

Discuss.