Skinny Santas?

"Skinny Santas?" an editorial found in the Los Angeles Times on December 24, 2007, explains how the British are beginning to 'notice' how Santa's paunchiness is said to be a "health hazard" setting bad examples of obesity. "It's not possible for one man to eat 5 billion or so sugar cookies on the night before Christmas and be anything but a butterball." By eating so many cookies on Christmas Eve, there is no doubt that Santa is 'obese', yet that does not make Santa responsible for the obesity arising in England. The editorial states that Santa is highly promoting Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, which may not only lead to a large amount of Britain's population to become obese, but also to suffer from several different health issues. To try to prevent this from happening, Britain's malls and shops have demanded to have slim Santa's appear at their sites. It is said that if slim Santas continue, Christmas time will perhaps soon begin bringing buff Santa's and Santas with six-pack abs. Britain's emporiums seem to be so serious about slimming their Santa's, that shopping centers have even begun sending their Santa's to santa boot camp if the excess weight cannot be lost on its own. "Skinny Santa's" finally says that it just may be that Britain is beginning to catch up on some of our(the US/American's)bad eating habits;causing unwanted burden on our bodies-and Santa should not be blamed.

Tone: Humorous

Question: If this Santa idea continues, will it spread to the US and next year, find ourselves waiting for 'hot' santas to arrive and workout with body building weights instead of eating our high calorie cookies and drinking a glass of milk?
How is it that England chose Santa as their cause for obesity?


Want to read the article yourself? Click Below!
www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-santas24dec24,0,6003216.story?coll=la-news-comment-editorials

Tracking the mild coyote

Meghan Daum's Los Angeles Times article from December 22, 2007, "Tracking the mild coyote,"shows how a city girl takes in an orphaned coyote into her Wyoming home, causing others to debate whether her actions with nature are right or wrong. The article shows how Charlie, a wild coyote becomes domesticated after living in a home with Shreve Stockton(the woman who took him in shortly after birth), and her cat Eli who each night, all sleep together on the same bed. Stockton has created a blog with over 30,000 hits each day, where she posts pictures of Charlie being both a fierce and a delicate animal. With all those people viewing Charlie's blog, Stockton is sometimes led to receive negative comments for holding a wild animal away from its natural habitat. The article states that Charlie has become so tame and kind, that apart from living indoors, he walks on a leash and is fed different foods such as dog food and organic cheese. Inclusively, Charlie has been taught to be so much like a friendly domestic animal that when out in the wild, is intimidated by humans other than his owner and neighbor, as well as several different wild animals, leading him to hide at Stockton's side for "protection" from other coyotes. Stockton says she wants to protect Charlie from people nearby her home, causing her to keep her homes' location a complete secret so not to be tracked down by residents. Meghan Daum's article, "Tracking the mild coyote," shows how people have become so interested in the existence of such a disastrous violent animal becoming domesticated, that more and more people are beginning to express their opinions;not only on the issue itself, but on the overall population of wild animals around their area as well.

Tone: Informative

Question: After reading this article will people begin wanting to domesticate wild animals as well?
How will stockton deal with people who are against her domesticating a wild animal?
How does Stockton keep her home's location a "secret?"

Want to read the article yourself? Click Below!
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-daum22dec22,0,1212930.column?coll=la-opinion-center