Which is just crazy. I mean, don’t these wizened ingrates understand that the ban is for their own good? From the AP:
It was just another morning at the senior center: Women were sewing, men were playing pool – and seven demonstrators, average age 76, were picketing outside, demanding doughnuts.They wore sandwich boards proclaiming, “Give Us Our Just Desserts” and “They’re Carbs, Not Contraband.”
At issue is a decision to refuse free doughnuts, pies and breads that were being donated to senior centers around Putnam County, north of New York City. Officials were concerned that the county was setting a bad nutritional precedent by providing mounds of doughnuts and other sweets to seniors.
The picketers said they were objecting not to a lack of sweets but that they weren’t consulted about the ban.
“Lack of respect is what it’s all about,” said Joe Hajkowski, 75, a former labor union official who organized the demonstration. He said officials had implied that seniors were gorging themselves on jelly doughnuts and were too senile to make the choice for themselves.
C. Michael Sibilia said, “I’m 86, not 8.”
Maybe so, Mr Sibilia. But if you’re 86 and don’t yet know what’s best for you, you may as well be 8, and county officials have every right to treat you as such — particularly when your short term freedom and happiness threatens to interfere with their long term goal of making you comfortable and easily managed.
Stan Tuttle, coordinator of nutritional services for the county’s Office for the Aging, said the program had gotten out of control. As many as 16 cases of breads, cakes and pastries were delivered, by various means, to the William Koehler Memorial Senior Center each day. Some were moldy and some had been stored overnight in the trunks of volunteers’ cars, he said.
Caregivers there and elsewhere say the doughnut debate illustrates the difficulty of balancing nutrition and choice when providing meals to the elderly.
“Senior citizens can walk down to the store and buy doughnuts. Nobody’s stopping them,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington.
But he notes that older people have high rates of heart disease and high blood pressure and says senior citizen centers, nursing homes and assisted-living centers should not be worsening the health problems of seniors.
Well, I’m not sure having them march around outside in sandwich boards demanding the return of their snack cakes is the best thing for them, either — but then, this is less about health than it is about who gets to determine and control what is healthy.
Seniors, it seems, are incapable of making choices concerning their own heath and wellbeing. Powerless to fend off the sugary goodness of a jelly donut, they must therefore surrender their autonomy to the county, which, like a bureaucratic guardian angel, has presumed to step in and make sure that a diet of broiled fish, unsalted green beans, and a cube of Jell-O serve to protects these elderly cake eaters from themselves.
And who can blame them? After all, what good is freedom if you’re dead?
No. This is for your own good, geezers. So quit your bellyaching and learn to love the prunes. Or next time we come after your “back massagers” out of concern for your hips and spine.
Comment by happyfeet on 9/24 @ 11:31 am #
I mean, if someone is going to have a debilitating strike today anyway, Michae…
I’m so going to hell.
Comment by Techie on 9/24 @ 11:34 am #
CSPI is a bunch of quacks who got famous for declaring that Fetticini Alfredo was “a heart attack on a plate”.
If there’s an intrusive government regulation into food and nutrition, you can be sure they’ll be there.
Comment by happyfeet on 9/24 @ 11:35 am #
Ack, that would be stroke. A debilitating one. With drooling involved.
Comment by JD on 9/24 @ 11:36 am #
They just opened the first Dunkin Donuts in Indianapolis recently. I sat in line for 35 minutes in their drive thru this morning.
Comment by wishbone on 9/24 @ 11:37 am #
Things I would have paid to see: One of those do-gooders try to take a crueller away from my Grandfather.
His nickname was Bull. For a reason.
Comment by SarahW on 9/24 @ 11:41 am #
Luther Burgers all around. (From the Theses for 95yo’s, who have doggone it EARNED the right to stroke out on the spot)
Pingback by More "free exchange of ideas" on 9/24 @ 11:41 am #
[...] to Protein Wisdom homepage « “Seniors Balk at Ban on Free Doughnuts” | Home | September 24, 2007 More “free exchange [...]
Comment by Fred on 9/24 @ 11:43 am #
These people are seniors, for crying out loud. They should be delivering free cigarettes. What difference does it make at this stage of their lives, for crying out loud. I’ve made myself a promise: if I make it to 72, I get to start smoking again.
Comment by Fred on 9/24 @ 11:44 am #
FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!
Comment by Dan Collins on 9/24 @ 11:49 am #
Sheryl: [to Frank] He was snorting heroin.
Frank: [to Grandpa] You were snorting heroin?
Grandpa: [in response to Frank, aimed at Dwayne] Let me tell ya, don’t do that stuff. When you’re young, you’re crazy to do that shit.
Frank: [to Grandpa] well what about you?
Grandpa: [to Frank] what about me? When you’re old you’re crazy not to do it
Comment by BJTexs on 9/24 @ 11:56 am #
Time to gum the donuts … the donuts…
HEY! LEGGO!
Yup, I’m joining happyfeet in hell.
Comment by happyfeet on 9/24 @ 11:58 am #
Something tells me her satisfaction at seeing the donuts removed has not increased the sum total of Rita’s contentment.
Comment by Rob Crawford on 9/24 @ 12:20 pm #
It has little to do with health, and more involves the desire to control others’ lives and an aesthetic objection to people enjoying themselves.
Comment by ushie on 9/24 @ 12:23 pm #
Jaysus, when you’re that old, you should be able to do damn well what you want, and not have to listen to those nosy whippersnappers.
Comment by Joseph on 9/24 @ 12:26 pm #
Jeff, I really, REALLY could have done without that last line. My mind’s eye feels violated.
Comment by B Moe on 9/24 @ 1:00 pm #
“Stan Tuttle, coordinator of nutritional services for the county’s Office for the Aging”
If I make it to retirement age, I am going to always carry a cane whether I need it to walk or not, just for all the Stan Tuttles of the world. What jury is going to convict an old man for putting a couple of knots on this douchebags head for impeding the pursuit of happiness?
Comment by Christopher Taylor on 9/24 @ 1:08 pm #
Far as I’m concerned, you hit 86 you can eat nails and lard out of the can if you want to. Like it’s gonna matter in the long term.
Comment by SteveG on 9/24 @ 1:24 pm #
They still get to have broiled fish?
If they live more than 20 miles from a seaport, they have no business eating fish. The carbon footprint of a frozen cod fillet is bigger than Al Gore’s ass.
The old bastards should do penance for decades of eco sins by crawling off into the woods, digging a hole and composting themselves.
Plus they are the generation that started all this war shit
Comment by daleyrocks on 9/24 @ 1:40 pm #
Screw the prunes. Fruit compote works better. That shit goes through ‘em faster than grain through a goose. Plus its got colors.
Comment by happyfeet on 9/24 @ 1:47 pm #
I sleep better knowing that whatever circle I am fated for, it won’t be near as bad as SteveG’s.
Comment by JD on 9/24 @ 2:32 pm #
happyfeet – I have my targets set on the the 5th Circle, and after reading SteveG, I think the fact that I was laughing and nodding my head in agreement gives me a good headstart towards getting there.
Comment by Merovign on 9/24 @ 3:00 pm #
What the nannies do now to the weak, the inform, the elderly and thos unable to care for themselves, they will foits upon you tomorrow.
Hell, people like CSPI are trying to do it NOW.
Freedom has consequences. One of those consequences is your population not being infantalized by denying them the consequences of their actions.
Without having to deal with the consequences of your actions, you don’t learn. If you don’t learn, you’ll be a God-damned useless idiot.
That’s why free societies succeed – people learn.
Comment by McGehee on 9/24 @ 3:04 pm #
But what kind of an example would such a father be setting for his children?
Comment by JD on 9/24 @ 3:11 pm #
I plan on not living into those years where my ability to take care of myself has been diminished. I would prefer to pass in a fiery Harley accident, flying off a cliff on Highway 1, near Big Sur and Ventana. That way, some pencil necked geek in some governmental department dedicated to ruining the remaining days of the old geezers will not have the chance to ruin my remaining days. Personally, I think nursing homes should serve nothing but steak, potatoes, eggs, bacon, NY style cheesecake with fresh stawberries, and have unlimited TastyKakes, Twinkies, Ho Hos, and Haagen Das ice cream, along with plenty of Viagra, Cialis, and strippers.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 9/24 @ 3:20 pm #
In his youth my grandfather shoveled out the barn during spring break, and then flew Sopwith Camels. He saved his pay, became a dentist, and worked long hours building a successful practice. He lived into his ninties.
He would butter his eggs.
These buggers would deny an old man who had worked hard all of his life and faced death everytime he lifted one of those crates off the ground a minor pleasure. To the devil with ‘em all!
Comment by Rusty on 9/24 @ 3:21 pm #
Sarah. I don’t know how long I’m fated for, but if I’m lucky enough to get into my eighties it’s gonna be bourbon, montechristos, and creampuffs, till I cack. And black tar heroin. Almost forgot.
Trackback by Dean's World on 9/24 @ 3:34 pm #
Yes they will take your doughnuts away….
See this piece by Jeff G about New York city official’s decision to refuse free doughnuts, pies and breads that were being donated to senior centers around Putnam County, north of……
Comment by Bill Arnold on 9/24 @ 3:58 pm #
Just FYI, Putnam County (NYS) is mostly Republican. The primary (usually hotly contested) is the election. I don’t know the political affiliations of “Stan Tuttle, coordinator of nutritional services for the county’s Office for the Aging”. Hopefully he’s extremely embarrassed.
Comment by JD on 9/24 @ 4:01 pm #
It does not matter if this person is a Republican or a Democrat. He is a vile and despicable person. Who in the hell would deny an elderly person the simple pleasure of a donut? What kind of sadistic bastard is Stan Tuttle?
Comment by TallDave on 9/24 @ 4:31 pm #
Marie Antoinette: Let them eat cake!
Michael Jacobson: Don’t let them eat cake!
And so the cycle of repression comes full circle, and the Jacobins become Jacobsons. Atkins wept!
Comment by Old Guy on 9/24 @ 5:06 pm #
>>Personally, I think nursing homes should serve nothing but steak, potatoes, eggs, bacon, NY style cheesecake with fresh stawberries, and have unlimited TastyKakes, Twinkies, Ho Hos, and Haagen Das ice cream, along with plenty of Viagra, Cialis, and strippers.
Comment by Old Guy on 9/24 @ 5:07 pm #
Where do I sign up??
Comment by David on 9/24 @ 5:14 pm #
I wished I lived near there; I’d buy several dozen fried donuts and take them to those geezers.
If they wouldn’t let me give them the goodies (and since the beauro-nannies said they could purchase their own), I’d sell the sweet things to ‘em for a penny a piece.
Then maybe some ribs, baked beans, grean beans cooked down with a piece of fat-back. corn-on-the-cob dripping with butter, coleslaw made with mayonaise, potato salad, tossed salad with creamy dressing, iced tea sweetened with real sugar–let those old people eat what they want! Like Mikey’s grandfather, most of them have earned it. But even if not, old people deserve our respect not patronizing from gov’ment nutjobs.
Comment by Jeff G. on 9/24 @ 6:29 pm #
A Republican nannystatist is every bit as loathsome as a Democratic one.
Which is why I haven’t been very kind to the Huckabee campaign.
Comment by JD on 9/24 @ 7:53 pm #
And why Bloomberg can suck the trans fats off of my … trans fats.
Comment by JD on 9/24 @ 8:51 pm #
http://www.dunkindonuts.com
I could not find any delivery services available on their website, but I think I am going to make it a mission to have a dozen donuts delivered to Joe Hajkowski, C. Michael Sibilia, and Stan Tuttle. Obviously, Tuttle has no clue of the simple joy he is denying these people.
Comment by SteveG on 9/24 @ 9:49 pm #
I can’t go to hell. I own a Prius. I donated my Hummer to charity.
I took away some donuts and broiled fish from a bunch of old warmongering, carbon swilling dotards.
Honor my wisdom and power. Follow me.
Comment by bour3 on 9/24 @ 10:57 pm #
Seems like a wise decision to me.
Pingback by Birthday And Wedding Cakes » “Seniors Balk at Ban on Free Doughnuts” on 9/25 @ 1:33 pm #
[...] Punny Money wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt cases of breads, cakes and pastries were delivered, by various means, to the William Koehler… of their snack cakes is the best thing for them, either but then, this is less about health than [...]
Pingback by Smith and Engels » Blog Archive » Defending Doughnuts on 9/27 @ 10:49 am #
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