Via Althouse comes this story about an unfortunate tweet saying fat folks should not bother applying for the PhD program since they obviously lack the self discipline necessary to complete a dissertation.  Professor Geoffrey Miller of NYU tweeted: “Dear obese PhD applicants: if you didn’t have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won’t have the willpower to do a dissertation. #truth.”

As is wont to happen, some folks (whether fat or not) took offense to the remark.  Miller doubled down saying finishing a dissertation is “about willpower/conscientiousness, not just smarts.”   Later when the heat got too hot, he deleted the offending tweets, but the damage was done.

Now poor Dr. Miller is being accused of various and sundry crimes against nature, including being a proponent of eugenics. Even worse, he is now the target of the worst kind of retaliation–mockery!  There’s even an aptly named blog “Fuck Yeah! Fat PhDs featuring photographs of “fatalicious” PhD candidates from institutions across our great nation.

I’m personally too fat and lazy to weigh-in (ahem) on the subject, other than to say I’m glad Dr. Miller is down with the low carb regimen. Althouse gives the issue her lawyerly analysis here and here.

I will just say that my personal journey to the scales this week revealed that I’ve gained 3 pounds, putting me back up to 252.  I wasn’t totally surprised, because I had a week of some pretty hellacious beer drinking.  Beer is liquid bread after all.  And even though I confine myself to the almost tasteless low carb variety (2.6 grams of carbohydrates per 12 oz bottle), the carbs do add up.  Especially when you drink 12 beers or so in one sitting.  Hey, I had company.  A soldier friend who is getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan.  So we had much to discuss!

So, shame on me.  At least I can be thankful that I’m not pursuing a doctorate degree.  Unless they offer one in the age old art of beer guzzling.

Onward and (hopefully) downward.